“The time clock must not return to the workplace,” said the chairman of the Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) of Düsseldorf’s “Rheinische Post” (Monday edition) in view of a ruling by the Federal Labor Court on the registration of working hours.
“The legislator should not misinterpret the judgment and no longer impose registration obligations on companies,” he said. “How long we work, for example, is a matter for the social partners. Why can’t that also apply to record-keeping requirements, ie how we document that?” Dulger asked.
Germany also needs an adjustment of the EU rules: “The Working Time Directive sets a weekly working time of 48 hours as the limit. Therefore, the question of how to distribute the 48 hours during the week should be a matter for the companies and the employees – and not be determined by rigid rules,” the BDA boss emphasized.
The Federal Labor Court ruled in September that employers in Germany are obliged to register their employees’ working hours. According to this, employers must introduce an “objective, reliable and accessible system” that allows “to measure the daily working hours worked by employees”. (SDA)