Time tracking in the home office

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After Corona, we all got used to working from home. Is this still possible with an obligation to record working hours? We have explained the legal situation to you and put together an overview of the various solutions.

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Disclaimer: All information on the pages of this website is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice in individual cases and cannot and should not replace such advice.

Now, after two and a half years of Corona and the introduction of home office for many companies in Germany, is the end of home office coming?

As the Federal Labor Court ruled in September 2022, all companies in Germany are obliged to record the working hours of their employees. This means that not only the hours that count as additional work or overtime must now be documented, but also all other hours worked.

The BAG is thus obliging German companies to Cell Phone Number Database introduce a time recording system. Incidentally, this obligation already applies today, even if no specific law has yet been passed. In April 2023, Hubertus Heil, Federal Minister of Labor, presented the federal government with a first draft law. You can find more information about this here .

But how do I do this if my employees work from home?

specifications of a time recording system
The BAG does not dictate to anyone which time recording system must be introduced. In principle, it is sufficient if the working hours of all employees are documented and archived. Of course, data protection requirements must be observed.

The situation is different with the ruling of the European Court of Justice, on which the Federal Labor Court and the new draft law are based. The court ruled in 2019 that all European member states must pass a law on working time recording. To date, this has not happened in Germany; the first draft law is currently being discussed.

According to the requirements of the European Court of Justice, working time recording must be reliable , objective and accessible .



criteria for time recording
How can time tracking work in the home office?
The traditional system for recording working hours is the time clock. The arrival and end times are stamped with a card and recorded on the card. This means that time recording is location-dependent and can only be recorded at the workplace. Of course, time recording does not work in a home office.

This system is now also available electronically. Instead of a paper card, an electronic chip is used that records working hours when scanned. However, this system is also dependent on a terminal and is therefore not home office friendly.

Another very popular solution is manual recording. Whether with pen and paper or an Excel spreadsheet - in this variant, the start and end of work as well as break times are entered manually in a table. Ideally, this happens at the start and end of work, but often only shortly before the end of the working day.

The problem with this solution is not only that the actual times are not documented, but that this system does not comply with the requirements of the European Court of Justice. Unfortunately, this variant cannot be described as reliable and objective time recording: pieces of paper get lost, can easily be manipulated and times often have to be estimated retrospectively.

This system is therefore very well suited for home offices purely in terms of its structure, but unfortunately it is not compliant with the law. But there is a third solution for time recording that is not only mobile, but also meets all the requirements of the ECJ, BAG and those of the new draft law.