Employees who register their hours electronically must receive a copy of their report via email or e-boks. This applies to employees under the plumbing collective agreement and the electrical collective agreement 2020-2023. And it is the company's own responsibility to ensure that they, together with their system provider, comply with the requirement.
Based on the requirement for a copy of time registration described in the plumbing collective agreement 2020-2023, TEKNIQ Arbejdsgiverne, which is an employer and trade organisation for electricity, plumbing and metal, together with the plumbing company Vest VVS ApS, initiated a complaint against the wording of this requirement back in 2022. The decision in the complaint was that TEKNIQ Arbejdsgiverne, VVS ApS and the other companies covered by the collective agreement should recognise the requirement. The decision places new and higher demands on both the companies and the IT system they use for time registration. In this article, you can learn more about the case, the consequences it has for the companies and the views of the parties involved.
What is the background to the case?
In October 2022, a decision was made in a labour arbitration that interpreted the wording of the Plumbing Agreement's section on Work Sheets. The case concerned clause 4.4.2 of the collective agreement, which reads:
“If electronic reporting of working hours is used, the employee must receive a copy of their report at the email address provided by the employee to the employer or via e-boks.”.
The reason this provision was added in the 2020 collective agreement renewal was to make it possible to uncover any irregular working time registrations, and for the employee to be able to see if, for example, correct wages have been calculated. At the same time, it would solve the problem that a terminated employee would lose access to and documentation of the reported work if it was only in the time registration system.
The Supreme Court judge, Lars Hjortnæs, ruled in the arbitration case:
“TEKNIQ Arbejdsgiverne and Vest VVS ApS must recognise that the company's employees must receive an exact copy of their reporting of working hours and salary components, either by e-mail or via e-boks when reporting is done electronically” and that “The copy must be sent to the employees in close temporal connection with the report.”
The decision means that it is not sufficient to have the registration on a time tracking app from which the registration can later be extracted together with the other registrations and made into a common overview that can be sent to the employee's email. On the contrary, it is a requirement to send an electronic copy of each individual reporting to the employee in “Close temporal connection with the alert”.
The judgement is met with criticism
The decision in the arbitration case has sparked debate among several profiles in the administration industry and in the affected companies. Among them is Christophe Zafiryadis, CEO of the digital time tracking system Intempus, who is perplexed by the decision. He believes that the decision is not in line with the IT we have today, and that it is unnecessary to send the report via email or e-boks to the employee if it is already freely available on the app.
“Basically, what I don't understand is that the information must be sent to the employee and that it's not enough that they have it available, including a log of changes and the possibility to download the data, directly in the time tracking system. Instead, the requirement should be that the employee's data must be accessible to the employee. It would actually be good for the employee.”, says Christophe Zafiryadis.
Christophe emphasises in this context that with a digital time registration system, it will still be possible for the employee to access their data after a possible dismissal or termination, and that the premise of the claim is therefore not valid.
Claus Rosendal Hansen, CFO at Dansk Kabel TV, supports this view. He and his employees are currently working out how to fulfil the requirement in practice.
“I think the requirement is characterised by an old-fashioned mindset where things are static and inflexible rather than modern and more fluid.”, says Claus Rosendal Hansen in disbelief.
Specifically, the requirement will mean that Claus, his employees and administrative staff will spend more time on administrative work.
“If the employee makes a change to their report, do they have to be sent another new email? That creates a lot of extra work for both the employee and the administrative staff. Instead, you should utilise the opportunities offered by digital, online time registration, where you can always keep an overview as both employee and administrator.”, he says.
Not necessarily a safe method
Sending a receipt for the report to the employee via email is not necessarily a 100% secure and encrypted method, says Christophe Zafiryadis:
“From a data protection point of view, it is far more insecure to send the data via email than for the employee to access it directly via the system where the data is created and secured/encrypted. It's as if those who made the decision have an outdated view of IT and time tracking,” he says.
Therefore, according to him, the requirement will neither increase safety nor give them a better overview of their hours.
What do you need to be aware of as a business?
If you as a company use electronic reporting of working hours and are subject to the plumbing collective agreement or the electrical collective agreement 2020-2023, it is your responsibility to ensure that the IT system you use for reporting can fulfil the following requirements:
- The employee must receive an exact copy of their report
- The copy should be sent to the employee's email or e-box
- The copy must be sent in close temporal connection with the report.
If you do not comply with these requirements, you as a company risk being fined for breaching the collective labour agreement.
Are there any changes in the requirement?
With the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations in the private sector - also known as OK23 - it will be interesting to see if the wording of the current requirement for a copy of the digital timesheet will change or if the requirement will remain in its current form. You can get an overview and follow the latest updates in the OK23 negotiations in our blog post here.
Intempus adapts to all requirements and regulations
With Intempus, you get a time tracking system that keeps up with all the new requirements and regulations in administration. For example, we can ensure that employees can always access their data via the web and print to Excel if they wish. They can also keep track of any changes made to their records, see who made the change and when it happened. They are also notified in the system when these changes have been made. And in the event of termination or dismissal, they still have the right to access their data.
If you're curious to learn more about Intempus, book a free, no-obligation demo here:
You are also welcome to give us a call at: +45 26390400
Sources: VVS Collective Labour Agreement 2020-2023 & Labour arbitration case FV 2022-953
