Working time – Employment Germany

Member States must require employers to set up a time recording system

By Dr. Kai Bodenstedt LL.M. / 14 May 2019 11 June 2019 / Working time

On 14 May 2019, the ECJ held (docket no. C-55/18), that Member States must oblige employers by law to set up a system for recording the time worked each day. In proceedings between the Federatión de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) – a Spanish Union – and Deutsche Bank SAE concerning the lack of a system for recording the time worked each day by the workers employed by the latter, the National High Court of …

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ECJ Advocate General: Companies are obligated to record daily and weekly working hours

By Dr. Henriette Norda LL.M. / 13 February 2019 11 June 2019 / Working time

The advocate general of the European Court of Justice is of the opinion that the member states have to pass a law which obliges companies to record the daily and weekly working hours of their fulltime employees, who are not contractually obligated to work overtime hours and who are not mobile employees, employees of the merchant navy or in the railway sector, to ensure the effective implementation of European Directive 2003/88/EG(2). The EU wants to …

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Right of part-time employees to return to full-time

By Dr. Kai Bodenstedt LL.M. / 3 December 2018 11 June 2019 / Part-Time Work, Working time

The German parliament has recently passed a law which amends the current Part-Time and Fixed-Term Act and will likely enter into force on 1 January 2019. Under the new law (so-called bridge-part-time-work), employees have the right to work part-time for a period of one to five years (“Part-Time-Period”) and return to full-time after the Part-Time-Period has expired. This right only applies if (i) at the time of the application the employee has been employed by …

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Employee data protection: Notification of private mobile phone number to employer

By Janine Krupa / 16 October 2018 11 June 2019 / Data Protection, Working time, Written Warning

The Higher Labor Court of Thuringia decided that the processing of an employee’s private mobile phone number against his will is an extremely serious interference with the employee’s personal rights and was not justified in the specific case (decision on 16 May 2018 – docket number 6 Sa 442/17). Therefore, the warning issued in this context was ineffective. The employee works for the district in the area of hygiene and infection protection. In the employee’s …

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Employer obligation to provide individual target agreements to safety authority

By Dr. Astrid Schnabel LL.M. / 16 April 2018 11 June 2019 / Bonus Payments, Health, Remuneration, Working time, Works Council

Employers may be required to provide safety authorities with information on individual target agreements with their employees. In a judgment dated 28 February 2018, the Dusseldorf administrative court confirmed a corresponding order by the local safety authority (docket number 29 K 4191/16). In the case at hand, the employer offers consulting services. It is bound by a local collective bargaining agreement which provides for a regular weekly working time of 38 hours. Under the CBA, …

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Time at home can be working hours

By Tom Stiebert / 1 March 2018 11 June 2019 / Working time

As we have already made clear in our article about time for changing clothes, the distinction between working time and rest periods is practically extremely important. The case law of the ECJ is decisive for the demarcation of these areas. Both working time and rest period are terms expressly listed in Article 2 of Directive 2003/88/EC. In a recent ruling (ECJ 21 February 2018, docket number C-517/15), the ECJ has now commented on the more …

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The right to extend working hours – sec 9 Act on Part-Time Work and Fixed-Term Employment (TzBfG)

By Tom Stiebert / 22 February 2018 11 June 2019 / Part-Time Work, Standard contractual terms and conditions of employment, Working time

Many employees want flexibility at work; often, this means there is a desire to work part-time (less than 40 hours a week). However the reverse case is also not uncommon; an employee wants to increase his working hours, particularly to earn more money. Both cases are covered by German law. However, there is a claim (currently) only in respect of shortening the working time (sec. 8 TzfG). With an extension the conditions are different. Sec. …

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Does the employer have to pay for clothes change times?

By Tom Stiebert / 5 February 2018 11 June 2019 / Remuneration, Working time

Many professions require the wearing of special clothing, whether for hygiene or safety reasons (for example, in a hospital), or to show a particular corporate identity (for example, supermarket vendors). The worker does not wear the clothing because he wants to, but because the employer demands it. This leads to several problems: First, the question arises whether the period of time to change clothes belongs to the daily working hours (which is usually limited to …

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Allowances for work on Sundays, bank holidays or at night are protected against attachment

By Miriam Hendrich / 29 September 2017 11 June 2019 / Remuneration, Working time

On 23 August 2017 the Federal Labour Court ruled (judgment, 10 AZR 859/16) that allowances for work on Sundays, on bank holidays and at night are protected against attachment so far as the amount of such payments is common practice. Whether the extent and amount of such allowances are “common”, which means they are protected against attachments (according to sec 850a no. 3 ZPO), can be linked to sec. 3b EStG. In the current case, …

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Demonstrating readiness to work every three minutes is unreasonable

By Thomas Olbrich / 22 September 2017 11 June 2019 / Data Protection, Minimum Wage, Remuneration, Working time

On 10 August 2017 the Labour Court of Berlin stated that it is unreasonable to require a taxi driver to press a button at short intervals of time in order to control the employee’s readiness to work (judgement of the Berlin Labour Court dated 10 August 2017, docket number 41 Ca 12115/16). The employee works as a taxi driver for a taxi company. During those periods of time when he was not driving the taxi …

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