As a result of the new legal requirements on working time registration, a number of questions arise related to what working time actually is and when it should be registered. If, for example, an employee goes to a conference or visits a customer or a business partner abroad, should one register from departure to when he returns home? Or only the time he actually works? And what about the 48-hour rule and rest time rules?
What is work related trips?
Work related trips is when an employee must travel to locations other than their normal workplace to perform a work-related task. This can be, for example, in connection with a conference, a course, a trade fair or a meeting with a business partner or customer.
Work time during work related trips
Working hours during work related trips will typically be determined by the applicable collective agreement, local agreement or contract.
However, it applies to everyone that the service itself or the work on site is included according to general rules for calculating working time. Also, free time – when you do not work at the foreign workplace – does not count as working time.
Medarbejder- og Kompetencestyrelsen in Denmark has also defined some rules for state, municipal and regional employees. If you are employed by the state, business trips are included in the working hours, but no more than 13 hours per day, unless otherwise agreed between employee and employer. There are no upper limits in municipalities and regions, – except that the the hours between 22.00 PM and 8.00 AM do not count as working time if overnight accommodation has been arranged.
In addition, if the employee travels from his place of residence to a place other than the normal place of work, only the “additional travel time”, i.e. the time that lies beyond the transportation time between the place of residence and the normal place of work.
Rest time and days off during work related trips
According to the 11-hour rule, the employee must have a rest period of at least 11 consecutive hours within each 24-hour period. This also applies to work related trips.
The Working Environment Act (DA: Arbejdsmiljøloven) Chapter 3, §13 states that: “Travel time to and from a place of work other than the fixed one is not considered a rest period or day off to the extent that it exceeds the employees’ normal travel time to the place of work.”
This means that when traveling abroad, the employee has the right to a minimum of 11-hour continuous rest period upon arrival at residence, if this has not been possible due to the transport time. The same applies when travelling return:
§14: When returning from a work related trip abroad or the Faroe Islands and Greenland, the employees must be given 11 hours of continuous rest calculated from the return, unless the employees have had a corresponding rest period in the last 24 hours before resuming their usual work.
In addition, when traveling abroad, the employee is entitled to an extra day off per week, i.e. 1 day off for each seven-day period. Usually, the employee has one day off in a seven-day period, but in connection with a trip abroad, the employee must have an extra day off either immediately upon returning home, as an extension of their rest period, or during the journey itself, again, as an extension of a rest period.
Deviations
In special cases, with permission from the the Working Environment Authority, you may be allowed to deviate from the 11-hour rest and day off rule – this also applies to work related travel. Special cases can e.g. be when “natural circumstances, accidents, machine breakdowns or similar unforeseen events disrupt or have disrupted the regular operation (force majeure)” (source: Arbejdstilsynet). However, all cases must be registred in the inspection book.
You can read more about the rules for deviations here.
48-timers rule and work related travel
According to the 48-hour rule, the employee may work no more than 48 hours over a seven-day period, averaged over a period of four months – including overtime. Periods of paid holiday and periods of sick leave are not included in the calculation of the average.
In relation to work related trips, where the total amount of working hours is typically higher than during periods of work at the workplace, the 48-hour rule also applies. Of course, this does not mean that the employee are not aloud to work more hours during the journey. It means that the employer must ensure that the employee takes time off within the 4 months if the total working time has been more than 48 hours on average.
However, the Working Time Registration Act contains an exception which makes it possible to deviate from the 48-hour rule. The rule applies to employees who perform socially critical functions and who are covered by a collective agreement provision or local agreement on on-call shifts.
You can read more about the 48-hour rule and the exception here.
Comply with the rules for working time and rest time – automatically!
Do you want a system that automatically helps you keep track of whether all employees comply with the rules for maximum weekly working time and rest time – both on the days they are in the office and during periods of work related travel? Then feel free to reach out to our skilled sales consultants for a more detailed discussion about your needs and which solution might suit you.
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