Germany Mandates Digital Time Logs While Opening Door to 60-Hour Weeks

A long-awaited German labour ministry draft would force every employer to electronically record workers’ start and finish times – the same document that proposes letting collective-bargaining agreements stretch the working week to as many as 60 hours.

The 21-page proposal, obtained by multiple German media outlets, is the ministry’s response to landmark rulings by the European Court of Justice and Germany’s Federal Labour Court on systematic timekeeping. Under the plan, companies would have to log the beginning, end and duration of each employee’s daily work on the day it is performed. Trust-based working time would remain permissible, but employers would need to ensure they become aware of any breaches of mandatory rest periods.

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Longer Days, Compensated by Time Off

Although the eight-hour day – in force since 1918 – stays as the default, the draft gives unionised workplaces considerably more leeway. In companies covered by a collective agreement, the maximum weekly hours could rise to 60, for example six ten-hour days. The condition: employees must receive compensatory time off within four months, and the annual average must not exceed 48 hours per week.

Bärbel Bas, Germany’s labour minister, stressed the proposal is not about abolishing the eight-hour day wholesale. “We are creating more scope for longer individual workdays,” she said, while insisting that health protections remain intact through special provisions.

Roughly half of all German employees currently work in tariff-bound companies and would be directly affected. For non-unionised firms the existing daily limits would remain unchanged.

Employers and Opposition Cry Foul

Reaction was swift and scathing. Employers’ president Rainer Dulger called the plan an “imposition” and demanded its withdrawal. He specifically attacked the linkage between flexibility and collective-bargaining coverage, arguing it contradicts the coalition agreement.

CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann said the draft provides an insufficient basis for further cooperation inside the ruling coalition. The metal-industry employers’ association Gesamtmetall labelled it a “step back into old regulatory patterns”. CDU MP Marc Biadacz insisted that any weekly maximum should apply to all workers irrespective of union coverage.

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The ministry pushed back, describing the document as an internal working draft still being co-ordinated across departments. A final decision is expected before the coalition summit planned for 1 July. Bas aims to push the reform through as part of a larger package before the summer parliamentary recess.

Sector-Specific Tweaks

The draft also carves out special rules for certain industries. Bakeries would be allowed to extend Sunday and public-holiday work to five hours for production and three hours for delivery. Public libraries could remain open up to six hours on Sundays and holidays.

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