Working Time

• What requirements must be complied with in terms of working time?
• What legislation regulates working time and rest periods?
• Daily working time
• Breaks and rest periods
  • Breaks
  • Daily rest period
  • Rest period on Sundays and public holidays
• Employment on Sundays and public holidays
• Options available to the two sides of industry
• Exceptions subject to special conditions
• Working time records
• Penalties for non-compliance

What requirements must be complied with in terms of working time?

EU Directive 96/71/EC (the Posted Workers Directive) requires each Member State to ensure that its own national provisions on the maximum working time and minimum rest periods also apply to workers posted to that Member State.

Compliance with the German rules on working time and rest periods is also required when it comes to the posting of workers and assignment of temporary agency workers to Germany from other EU Member States and non-EU countries.

What legislation regulates working time and rest periods?

• In general, the Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz - ArbZG) applies to the organisation of working time for workers in Germany.
• For children and young people up to the age of 18, the Act on the Protection of Young People at Work (Jugendarbeitsschutzgesetz - JArbSchG) and the Ordinance on Protection Against Child Labour (Kinderarbeitsschutzverordnung - KindArbSchV) apply.
• Additional restrictions for workers in the maternity protection period are set out in the Act on the Protection of Working Mothers (Mutterschutzgesetz - MuSchG).

• Special rules exist for workers in seafaring professions (Maritime Labour Act – Seearbeitsgesetz), in inland water transport (Inland Navigation Working Time Ordinance - Binnenschifffahrts-Arbeitszeitverordnung), in the aviation sector (Second Implementing Ordinance on the Regulations for the Operation of Aircraft - Zweite Durchführungsverordnung zur Betriebsordnung für Luftfahrtgerät), in the road transport sector (driving times and rest periods), and on offshore installations (Offshore Working Time Ordinance - Offshore-Arbeitszeitverordnung). Special provisions for workers in the retail sector are contained in the federal Shop Opening Hours Act (Ladenschlussgesetz des Bundes; applies only in Bavaria) and the laws on shop opening hours of the Länder (Germany’s federal states).
  

  driving times and rest periods (in German)

• Rules on working time and rest periods can also be contained in (generally binding) collective agreements.
  Information about (generally binding) collective agreements

Daily working time

• The maximum daily working time on a business day is eight hours. Business days are the days from Monday to Saturday.
• The maximum daily working time on a business day may be extended to up to ten hours without a special justification being required. This extension must be offset within six calendar months or 24 weeks, reducing the average working time to eight hours. This indirectly establishes an average maximum weekly working time of 48 hours per week.
• In the case of night workers, the daily working time on business days may only be extended to ten hours if the additional hours worked are offset within one calendar month or four weeks, reducing the average working time to eight hours.
• Readiness for work (Arbeitsbereitschaft) and on-call time (Bereitschaftsdienst) are treated as working time in their entirety.

Breaks and rest periods

Breaks

• Workers must receive a predetermined rest break lasting

  • at least 30 minutes if they work more than six hours, and
  • at least 45 minutes if they work more than nine hours.
• This rest break can be taken as multiple breaks adding up to the total duration set out above; each individual break must be at least 15 minutes long.

Daily rest period

• Workers must receive an uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours after the end of their working day.
• In certain sectors (hospitals and other establishments providing treatment and care, restaurants and other establishments in the hospitality sector, transport businesses, broadcasting, agriculture and livestock farming), the rest period may be shortened by one hour, if the reduction is offset within one calendar month or four weeks by extending another rest period to at least 12 hours.
• In hospitals and other establishments providing treatment and care, reductions in the rest period caused by work performed while on stand-by duty may, if they represent less than half of the rest period, be offset at other times.

Rest period on Sundays and public holidays

• The weekly rest day in Germany is generally Sunday.
• In principle, workers may not be employed on Sundays or on public holidays from midnight to midnight.
• The Sunday rest period or public holiday rest period must be granted to workers immediately following a daily rest period, unless this is precluded by technical reasons or reasons concerning the organisation of work.
• In businesses with shift work where there are regular day and night shifts, the beginning or end of the Sunday rest period or public holiday rest period may be brought forward or delayed by up to six hours if the business shuts down for the 24 hours following the start of the rest period.
• For drivers and driver’s mates, the beginning of the 24-hour Sunday rest period or public holiday rest period may be brought forward by up to two hours.

The following public holidays are observed nationwide in Germany:

• New Year’s Day (1 January)
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Ascension Day
• Whit Monday
• Labour Day (1 May)
• Day of German Unity (3 October)
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

In addition, the following public holidays are observed regionally in the Länder:

• Epiphany (6 January) in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt
• International Women’s Day (8 March) in Berlin
• Corpus Christi in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony (only partly observed), Thuringia (only partly observed).
• Augsburg Peace Festival, only in the city of Augsburg
• Assumption Day (15 August) in Saarland, Bavaria (only partly observed)
• World Children’s Day (20 September) in Thuringia
• Reformation Day (31 October) in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia
• All Saints’ Day (1 November) in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland
• Day of Prayer and Repentance in Saxony

Employment on Sundays and public holidays

• The employment of workers on Sundays and public holidays is generally prohibited. Exceptions are possible in certain sectors if the work cannot be carried out on business days.
• The exceptions mainly cover the “traditional fields” of work on Sundays and public holidays (in particular the fire brigade, hospitals, restaurants, entertainment, sport, radio and television, trade fairs and exhibitions, agriculture, public services, the security guard services industry). Workers may be employed in bakers and confectioners for up to three hours to produce or deliver confectionery, as well as bakery products to be sold that day.
• Work on Sundays and public holidays is permitted in industry if uninterrupted production is necessary because of technical requirements.
• No special authorisation is required for work on Sundays and public holidays in the sectors specified above.
• If workers are employed on a Sunday or a public holiday, they must receive a compensatory day of rest. The compensatory day of rest must be granted within two weeks in the case of work on a Sunday, and within eight weeks in the case of work on a public holiday.
• The compensatory day of rest must be granted to workers immediately following a daily rest period, unless this is precluded by technical reasons or reasons concerning the organisation of work.
• Workers must have at least 15 Sundays each year when they do not work.

Options available to the two sides of industry

• It is possible to agree exceptions to the fundamental standards set out above (e.g. longer daily working times in the case of readiness for work (Arbeitsbereitschaft) or on-call time (Bereitschaftsdienst), longer periods in which to offset additional time worked, shorter rest periods), subject to certain requirements, in a collective agreement or in a firm-level agreement based on a collective agreement.
• If a nationwide collective agreement is declared to be generally binding, its provisions also apply to employment relationships between an employer with its registered office abroad and workers employed in the territory of application of the collective agreement. Information on the generally binding collective agreements which must be complied with can be found here.
  Information about (generally binding) collective agreements

Exceptions subject to special conditions

• Derogations from these fundamental standards are possible subject to special conditions set out in legislation. In some cases, this requires the authorisation of the relevant occupational safety and health authority.
  Occupational safety and health authority (in German)
• The occupational safety and health authority may, for example, authorise a longer daily working time for construction and installation sites, for businesses operating continuous shifts in order to achieve additional non-working shifts, and for seasonal and campaign-based businesses for the duration of the season or campaign.
• In addition, the occupational safety and health authority may permit exceptions to the fundamental standards if they are urgently needed in the public interest.
• Exceptions solely on the basis of the law are permissible in emergencies or in other exceptional cases beyond the control of those concerned, in particular if there is a risk of raw materials or food spoiling, or of work products being ruined.

Working time records

• Under the Working Time Act, employers are required to keep records of any periods worked by their employees which exceed the standard eight-hour working day. The records must be retained for at least two years.
• Special rules on working time records are contained in the Posted Workers Act (Arbeitnehmer-Entsendegesetz) and the Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz).
  Other obligations

Penalties for non-compliance

• Compliance with the Working Time Act is monitored by the occupational safety and health authorities. Breaches of the rules on working time and rest periods can result in a fine of up to 30,000 euros.
• Prison sentences may also be imposed in particularly serious cases, especially if the breaches endanger an employee’s health or ability to work.