EU Time Tracking Law: Everything Employers Need To Know

August 29, 2023
Employee Wellness, Productivity, Workplace Culture

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You probably already know how important it is to track your employees’ hours and attendance. Every European company must have a record of them available for government checking.

Time tracking has many benefits for employers and employees, and an effective tracking system must be in place. Companies must be compliant with the time tracking law.⏰

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) set the law in 2019. It stated that all countries in the EU “must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured.” Essentially, a time-tracking software must be in place.⌚️

In this blog, we will discuss the EU time tracking law and some examples of how they’re implemented in other European countries. Let’s examine some of the EU member states’ laws and everything you need to know.

What are the benefits of time tracking?

Time-tracking doesn’t only help with compliance, but it’s also beneficial for employees and employers.

Let’s take a look:

Benefits for employees🤩

Overtime will be compensated
No wage theft
Increased rest periods
Legal protection against abusive employers
Better working hours
Work-life balance
Digital disconnection rights
No consequent work shifts

Benefits for employers☺️

More accurate records
Better trust and transparency between all parties
Enhancement in employee productivity and health
Increased handling of costs, inefficiencies, and time sinks
Deadlines and quotes have better accuracy
You will avoid penalties and fines

European Working Time Directive (2003)

The European working time directive or ETWD was created to safeguard the employees’ health and safety. By reducing the working hours and providing sufficient rest; you can prevent the following:

Burnout
Stress
Illness
Depression

Time tracking also helps employers because employees’ productivity and efficiency may increase when they are healthy and well-rested. According to research, a highly engaged team can experience 41% reduction in absenteeism and 59% less turnover, suggesting the importance of time-tracking benefits.

Source Indeed

Before 2019, companies were not obliged to track working hours, only overtime. But the members of the EU should create their national law that uses the EU directive and add the ones they prefer.🇪🇺

You can check out the EU directives’ minimum standards below:

Working Hours⏳

Employees cannot work more than 48 hours per week, including overtime, for over seven days. This doesn’t include breaks. Employees who want to work extra overtime can choose not to follow the 48-hour limit. Tracking employee work hours will ensure no one exceeds the correct amount of time.

Breaks and Rest🥱

Each worker must have 11 hours of continuous daily rest. In addition, they must also have a 24-hour continuous rest after seven days. Employees who worked for 6 hours should have a 15-minute break. Those who worked for 9 hours need to have a 45-minute break.

Regular breaks and rest help increase productivity and focus. According to a study, nearly 90% of North American employees claim that taking a lunch break helps them feel refreshed.

Annual Leave🧳

Each employee has a paid leave of at least four weeks per year. You can’t convert paid leave into money unless the employment contract has been terminated.

Source Zippia

Night Shift🌃

Night workers are only allowed up to 8 hours every 24 hours. They shouldn’t perform heavy or dangerous work during that time as well. Night shift workers are allowed to have free health assessments. They should also be entitled to transfer to the day shift during specific situations.

EU time-keeping requirement since 2019

The European Union decided to have a new time-keeping requirement in May 2019. This is because CCOO, a Spanish trade union, sued a local branch of Deutsche Bank. The former stated that the latter violated the EU labor law, which the EU Working Time Directive set.

It was estimated that they did not pay for 54% of overtime hours and even underreported the employees’ working hours.⏲

That’s why the EU now obliged employers to monitor their employees’ attendance and working hours, including daily working time and overtime.✍️

The European Union required all its member states and employers to produce an objective, trustworthy, and accessible system to track time. By doing this, cases of underreporting hours and underpaying can be avoided.

German Law🇩🇪

Germany greatly protects their employees’ rights, so they apply all that is in the EU directive and went the extra mile with the following:

Maximum of 8 working hours each day or 48 hours each week.
When an employee exceeds eight working hours, it is classified as overtime.
All overtime must be recorded through software or hard copy. It should be signed by the staff and kept for a minimum of 2 years.
Employees are only allowed up to 2 hours of overtime each day.
Each workday must have a 30-minute unpaid break.

Since Germany is strict with this law, employees’ time must be documented on paper or via software with a time tracker like the one MyTommy offers. All employers are obliged to record their employees’ working time precisely.

Source Lexology

Spanish Law🇪🇸

Spain is the first nation that obliged companies to track time for all working hours. This is probably because of the dispute between the Deutsche Bank and the CCOO. According to their law, companies are required to:

Record all of their employee’s working hours and breaks, wherever they may work or whichever type of contract they have.
Keep time documents for four years.
The time records must be available to the public, government, unions, and employees.
Inform employees about the duration and distribution of a workday.
The unions should be informed every month about overtime hours.

If a company doesn’t comply with this law, it will be fined from €626 to €6,250. The amount will depend on the size and nature of the company, how many employees they have, and the turnover rate.

The law doesn’t specify how to record attendance and working hours. But you can consider using a clock-in/clock-out system or a time tracker.

UK Law🇬🇧

The UK decided not to be a part of the European Union, but they still have working time regulations that businesses must follow. Here are some of them:

Working hours should only be 48 hours per week. However, if the employee wants to work longer hours, they must have a written statement about it.
Night work must only have 8 hours of work per 24-hour period.
There must be accurate time records that will be kept for two years. It should be accessible to the government.

Similar to Spain they didn’t specify how to record time. However, an automatic time-keeping system will be easier and more convenient.

Final Thoughts💭

The EU Time Tracking Law is a big step toward better monitoring of time and attendance by workers. It’s beneficial for employees and employers and ensures the government’s trust.

MyTommy provides an effective time-tracking software that logs time accurately and tracks time and attendance.

Hopefully, this article helped you comply with the law and keep your employees happy. Did this article help your business? Let us know!

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