After the European Court of Justice ruled in 2019 that all EU member states must introduce systems for accurate time recording of employees' working hours, there has been an increased focus on control, compliance and transparency in relation to working hours. In Denmark, the ruling resulted in a new law on working time registration that came into force on 1 July 2024. Here's an overview of how the authorities monitor the provisions of the law and the financial and legal consequences a violation can have for your organisation.
The new law
The new Working Time Registration Act requires employers to provide employees with a working time registration system that is ”objective, reliable and accessible” and makes it possible to measure each employee's daily working hours. According to Ministry of Employment the requirement must, among other things, ensure compliance with the Working Environment Act's rules on daily and weekly rest periods and the 48-hour rule. Violating these rules can lead to fines or imprisonment.
Violation of rest time rules
To ensure that Danish companies comply with the rules of the Working Environment Act, including the rules on daily and weekly rest periods, the Danish Working Environment Authority conducts regular inspections, issues warnings and imposes fines if necessary. If a company violates a rule in the Working Environment Act, it can result in both fines or imprisonment for up to 2 years, cf. Section 82(1)(2) of the Danish Working Environment Act - depending on the extent of the offence. Here are the key ways in which monitoring is carried out:
Routine inspections
The Danish Working Environment Authority conducts scheduled visits to companies to ensure compliance with working time regulations. These inspections can include checking time recording systems and records.
Unannounced inspections
To ensure that companies are not only complying with regulations through announced inspections, authorities can also carry out unannounced visits where they can demand documentation of employees' working hours and breaks.
Penalties for offences
If companies can't document proper timekeeping or if they violate working time regulations, authorities can issue warnings, impose fines or, in the worst case, require the company to temporarily cease operations. Here you can see an overview of the Danish Working Environment Authority's fine levels for employers for different sizes of companies in cases where there has been a violation with both serious personal injury, aggravating circumstances and where the basic fine is DKK 24,600 and DKK 44,600 respectively:
Violation of the 48-hour rule
According to The 48-hour rule, which is part of the EU Working Time Directive, Under the 48-hour rule, an employee may not work more than 48 hours on average over a 4-month period. If the employee does this, the employee can be awarded compensation for violating the 48-hour rule. As it is the employer's responsibility to ensure that all employees comply with the rule, it is also the employer who must pay the fine. We saw this, for example, in a case between a temporary employment agency in Lithuania and one of their workers. The case concerned the fact that over three reference periods (4-month periods) the employee had recorded average weekly working hours of 48.58 hours, 51.17 hours and 50.28 hours respectively, which prompted him to take the company to court. The judgement was that the employer had to pay the employee DKK 25,000 for violating the law. You can read more about the entire case here.
It is important to note that the new Working Time Registration Act includes a possibility to deviate from the 48-hour rule. In order to make use of this option, it is necessary that the employer has shared information about the agreements made between employee and employer with the Labour Inspectorate. It must also be clearly stated in an addendum to the employee's employment contract if the employee is exempt.
Intempus helps you comply with the law
Compliance with working time regulations is not only a legal obligation, but also an important factor in ensuring a healthy and productive working environment. As an employer, it is therefore important to consider how you will document and ensure compliance with the working environment rules on daily and weekly rest periods and the Working Hours Act's 48-hour rule on maximum weekly working hours.
With Intempus, you get a system that makes it easy to keep track of whether you're staying on the right side of the law. In the Intempus App and Web, it is possible for both employer and employee to be made aware of violations. You can read more about handling The 48-hour rule in Intempus here, and The 11-hour rule in Intempus here.
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Sources: mklaw.dk, Poulschmith.dk, Retsinformation.dk, Ministry of Employment.dk, Danskelove.dk, EU Working Time Directive.
