Do you have an overview of your employees’ daily work hours? Otherwise, it can be expensive for you and your business. As an employer, you are obliged to have a time registration system that can register employee work hours and daily overtime. This was ruled by the European Court of Justice in 2019. But what does the verdict mean for you and your business?
The EU ruling fell on 14 May 2019 based on a specific case in Spain. In this case, doubts arose as to who should be responsible for compliance with the work time rules. In the past, it has been the responsibility of the employee to prove whether the rules were being broken. However, the European Court of Justice emphasized that the employee is the weak party in the employment relationship, and therefore should not be responsible.
Time registration is the employer’s responsibility
Thus, The European Court of Justice has ruled that it is the employer’s responsibility. Therefore, all EU member states must ensure that employers introduce an “objective, reliable and accessible system, that makes it possible to measure the length of every worker’s daily working time”.
Such a system is intended to ensure that the rules of the Working Time Directive are complied with. The European Court of Justice states that it is an efficient and easy way to always have an overview of the actual duration of the overtime and the general working hours of each employee.
At the same time, a time registration system will be able to provide reliable information, that you can use as valid evidence should this become necessary. Proper time registration also makes your employees happier and feel more secure because they themselves can have control and an overview of compliance with working time rules.
Observe the rules on working hours
The EU ruling gives your employees peace of mind and certainty that the rules on working hours will be complied with. The rules include:
- The 11-hour rule
- The 48-hour rule
- The rule of a weekly day off
In short, this means that your employees are entitled to at least 11 consecutive hours of rest within each 24-hour period. At the same time, for each period of seven days, they must have one day off, which should preferably be in connection with the daily 11-hour rest period. Finally, the 48-hour rule means that your employees may work a maximum of 48 hours on average per week for a period of four months.
How should the control take place in the different countries?
The European Court of Justice has left it up to the individual EU member states to control how the judgment is enforced. The countries must therefore establish a framework for how to implement this in their national regulations. Exactly how the Danish government choose to introduce the ruling in Denmark has not yet been clarified. However, it is still mandatory for all employees’ working hours to be registered – every day. You can do this efficiently, clearly, and easily with a time registration and shift planning system such as TimePlan, which gathers all the information in one place.
Choose a reliable system for proper time recording.
At TimePlan Software, time registration is one of our core competencies—and has been since 1995. TimePlan ensures that you always comply with the EU ruling on an objective, reliable and accessible system for time registration—and the applicable agreements. Over the past 25 years, we have helped more than 700 customers get an overview and register their employees’ work style and absence. The TimePlan WebApp also gives employees an updated overview of work schedules, holidays and working hours directly on their smartphone.
Contact us today , to learn more about the benefits of TimePlan.
