Working Time Directive: what it means for time recording

What the Working Time Directive requires

The Working Time Directive (Directive 2003/88/EC) is the core EU rulebook on working hours. It sets minimum rules that every member state must apply, and the UK applied the same rules through its Working Time Regulations 1998 before and after Brexit.

The main limits are:

• Daily rest: at least 11 consecutive hours between shifts (Article 3).
• Breaks: a rest break when a working day is longer than six hours (Article 4).
• Weekly rest: a minimum rest period of 24 hours in each seven-day period, on top of daily rest (Article 5).
• Maximum weekly hours: an average of 48 hours per week, including overtime (Article 6).
• Night work: an average limit of eight hours per 24 hours for night workers (Article 8).
• Annual leave: at least four weeks of paid leave per year (Article 7).

The directive defines working time in Article 2. Being at the workplace and at the employer's disposal counts as working time, which is why the question of how hours are measured matters so much.

Why the directive points to time recording

The directive sets limits but does not describe how to check them. That gap was closed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in case C-55/18, CCOO v Deutsche Bank SAE, decided on 14 May 2019.

The Court held that member states must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system that measures the daily working time of each worker. Without such a system, workers cannot prove that they worked beyond the limits, and authorities cannot verify that the limits are respected. The ruling leaves the design of the system to national law, which may take account of sector and company size.

In practice, this means that the question is no longer whether to record working time, but how. Several EU countries have since set out their own rules, which differ in detail.

Time recording rules by country

The table gives a short overview. Each country has its own statute, and the details, exceptions and retention periods should be checked against the current text.

Germany

Germany's Working Time Act (ArbZG) limits the working day to eight hours, extendable to ten hours if the average over six months stays at eight. Breaks are 30 minutes for shifts over six hours and 45 minutes for shifts over nine hours. Under §16(2), employers must record working time beyond eight hours per day and keep the records for at least two years.

The CJEU ruling has made the position less clear. Recording only overtime may not meet the objective and reliable system that the Court described, and discussions on a reform of the ArbZG to introduce a full recording duty have been ongoing. Check the current status before relying on either reading.

The Federal Labour Court (BAG) decided on 13 September 2022 (1 ABR 22/21) that a works council generally has co-determination rights over electronic time recording. For most employers, that means agreeing the system with the works council before rollout.

Austria

Austria's Working Hours Act (AZG) requires employers to record the daily working hours of covered employees, including start, end and breaks, under §26. The records must be kept for the statutory retention period and made available to the authorities on request. Several exemptions apply, for example to some managerial roles, so check whether your staff are covered.

Switzerland

The Swiss Ordinance 1 to the Labour Act (ArGV 1), Article 73, requires employers to record the working time of employees subject to the working-time rules. The records must show the hours worked and be kept for five years. Some categories of staff are exempt, so confirm the position for each group before setting up your system.

Spain

Spain changed its rules in 2019 with Royal Decree-Law 8/2019. Article 34.9 of the Workers' Statute requires employers to keep a daily record of working hours, showing the start and end time of each shift. The record must be kept for four years and be available to workers, their representatives and the labour inspectorate. The rule applies to full-time and part-time staff alike.

United Kingdom

UK law does not require a time clock for every employee, but it does require records. Under regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998, employers must keep records that show compliance with the 48-hour average, the night work limits and the rest break rules, for two years. Post-Brexit, the UK is not bound by CJEU rulings, but the regulations still set the duties that the records must prove.

What a compliant time recording system needs

Whichever country applies, a recording system is only as good as its design. Look for these features:

1. Start and end times, or the daily total, for each worker. Breaks should be recorded as well, so that rest rules can be checked.
2. Entries that are hard to alter silently. Corrections should be logged with who changed what and when.
3. Access for the worker. Employees should be able to see their own records and raise a question about them.
4. Retention rules. Keep records for the period your country requires, then delete them on schedule.
5. Reports for inspection. Managers and, if asked, authorities should be able to see records for a set period as a PDF or CSV export.

A simple tool that people use every day usually produces better records than a complex one that people avoid. Manual entries are fine, provided that corrections leave a trace.

Works councils and data protection

Time recording data is personal data under the GDPR, so the design should follow the same principles as any employee data:

• Legal basis. Recording working time usually relies on a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR), not on consent. Consent is hard to rely on in an employment relationship.
• Minimisation. Record working time, projects and absences. Do not record activity data that the working-time rules do not require.
• Transparency. Employees should know what is recorded, why and for how long (Articles 5 and 13).
• Processor contracts. A provider that hosts the data needs a data processing agreement (Article 28).
• Impact assessment. Larger rollouts may need a data protection impact assessment under Article 35.

In Germany, the works council and the data protection officer are usually involved early. Agreeing settings in writing before rollout avoids disputes later. For the data protection side in more depth, see our guide to GDPR time tracking.

How zeitfair supports time recording

zeitfair is built to record working time fairly and to keep the records usable for inspection:

• Timer and manual entries with projects, clients and tasks.
• Breaks checked against ArbZG rules in the same flow as work time.
• Audit log for every correction to a time entry.
• Absences with approval, so leave is recorded alongside working time.
• Monthly time statement (Zeitnachweis) as PDF, and CSV or PDF exports for reports.
• Data stored in the EU (Frankfurt), with a data processing agreement available online.
• Team and project reports without individual scoring.

zeitfair is designed for working-time records, not for monitoring people. It does not track screenshots, keystrokes or activity scores. For the wider picture on how teams use the tool day to day, see employee time tracking and the timesheet app guide.

Not legal advice

This page is general information about EU and national working-time rules as of its update date. It is not legal advice and may not reflect the most recent changes or your specific situation. Laws, retention periods and exemptions change, and the details differ by sector and by employee status. Check your obligations with a qualified employment lawyer, your works council or your data protection officer before you roll out a time recording system.