On 1 July 2024, it became mandatory for all employers to introduce a system to register employees' working hours. It was adopted by the Ministry of Employment on 23 January 2023. The purpose of the law is to implement the European Court of Justice ruling from 2019, which sets new requirements for EU countries to register employees' working hours.
The background to the new law
Back in June 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled judgement on employers' obligation to record employees' working hours to ensure compliance with rules on daily and weekly rest periods and maximum weekly working hours. You can read more about the CJEU judgement in the blog post here. Since then, there have been discussions between the social partners and the government about the implementation of this EU judgement in national legislation. A new law from the Ministry of Employment now follows up on this EU judgement. You can access the final law here.
What does the law contain?
By law, employers are required to have a system for recording employees' working hours.
The employer can choose which time tracking system they want to use to fulfil the registration requirement. However, there is a requirement that it must be one: ”objective, reliable and accessible working time recording system that makes it possible to measure each employee's daily working time”.
It also states that the use of information recorded in the system is still subject to any control agreements that apply to the employee or other regulations such as GDPR.
And employees must also have access to their own information in the time tracking system.
In addition, the Ministry of Labour confirms that it will “...be possible for employers to choose a system for recording daily working hours where the daily working hours only need to be recorded by the employee on days when the actual working hours deviate from the agreed and/or scheduled working hours” (Ministry of Employment). This means that the employee only needs to register if their working hours are different to what they have agreed with their employer.
The Ministry of Employment's requirement for the introduction of a time registration system and the obligation for the employee to comply with this applies to the employee groups covered by the Act and the rules on rest periods in the Working Environment Act.
The exemption clause
As a starting point, you should all Employees who are paid to perform work for an employer register working hours in the chosen system. However, the law contains an exemption clause or “opt out” from the rules on maximum weekly working hours, breaks etc, including the 48-hour rule. The opt-out clause is intended to make it possible to expand the possibility of exempting several employee groups from the rules on working hours, breaks and rest periods. The option may be relevant for employees who have managerial functions and the freedom to determine their own working hours, or for employees who are not required to be at the workplace at certain times.
The law elaborates that the possibility to deviate from the provision that a maximum of 48 hours per week on average may only be worked: “be applied in relation to employees covered by collective agreement provisions on on-call duty, including local agreements to this effect, and who perform functions critical to society within those areas” (§4a, paragraph 2).
Specifically, the following employees are exempt from the requirement:
- Workers who can set their own working hours, also known as self-organisers
- Staff with management functions or other personnel authorised to make independent decisions, e.g. the company CEO
It is important to emphasise that only very few people can be exempted. The exemption should be interpreted narrowly, i.e. if you are in doubt as to whether a particular employee is covered by the time tracking requirements, they probably are.
If an employee is exempt, it is important that it is described in their employment contract.
Why is a time tracking system a good idea?
As a company, you will benefit greatly from implementing a time tracking system. A digital time tracking system benefits the employer by saving time on administrative work and minimising manual errors. The system provides a full overview of employees' hours, holidays, expenses, mileage, etc. 48-hour rule and the 11-hour rule. It also benefits the employee, who will find that daily time registration becomes easier and more flexible, overtime rules are respected and no holiday days are lost. This creates the best conditions for a healthy and productive work environment.
With a flexible and user-friendly time tracking system from Intempus, you can get a customised setup that is adapted to the applicable collective agreements in your company. In addition, the system can easily integrate with your payroll and ERP systems, allowing your data to flow seamlessly between systems and eliminating administrative duplication. It couldn't be easier to comply with working time regulations and keep track of time and employees in your organisation.
If you are interested in how our time registration system can optimise your workflows, you are welcome to contact us by phone at +45 26 390 400, or to book a no-obligation demo:
Sources: kromannreumert.com, bechbruun.com, The Ministry of Employment's legislative proposal, The adopted law, Payroll School webinar.
