Time tracking obligation in Germany: what has applied since 2022

Yes. Employers in Germany must record their employees working time. The basis is the Federal Labour Court decision of 13 September 2022, which derives the duty from § 3 (2) no. 1 of the Occupational Safety Act. There is no dedicated time-tracking statute, and the duty applies regardless.

No, not so far. The format is currently free: paper records and spreadsheets are lawful as long as they are complete and verifiable. A draft bill that would require electronic recording has been on the table since 18 June 2026, but it has not been passed. Until then the choice of format stays open.

From the first one. There is no minimum size for the duty to record, it applies to every employer with staff. A threshold is only planned for the electronic format: under the current draft, employers with up to ten employees could keep recording on paper.

Legally nothing so far. The draft bill of 18 June 2026 would require electronic recording on the day the work is performed, with collective agreements allowing up to seven calendar days. The law has not been passed. The draft staggers the transition periods by size: one year for all employers, two years below 250 employees, five years below 50.

The employer carries the obligation. They may delegate the data entry to employees — most systems work exactly that way — but remain responsible for ensuring hours are actually, completely and correctly recorded. Merely offering a system without checking it does not discharge the duty.

Broadly, senior executives within the meaning of the Works Constitution Act, and managing directors. Solo self-employed people without staff are not covered. All other employment relationships are — including part-time staff, mini-jobbers, working students and temporary help.

The start, end and duration of daily working time. It covers total working time including overtime, not overtime alone, which was the core of the Federal Labour Court decision. Under § 2 (1) of the Working Hours Act breaks do not count as working time; recording them anyway keeps start and end cleanly separated. In addition, § 16 (2) of the Working Hours Act has long required hours beyond eight per working day to be recorded.

There is no explicit minute-level requirement. What is required is an objective and reliable record. Blanket rounding to the employee disadvantage, or entering target hours after the fact, is unlikely to meet that bar, though nothing has been decided on it. In practice most systems record to the minute simply because it removes the argument.

Any record created electronically and readable by machine — time tracking software, an app, a terminal or browser entry. A scanned paper list does not count, because it is only an image. A spreadsheet is electronic but considered weak: it can be altered later unnoticed and offers no change history.

Legally yes, as long as no new law applies. In practice both are risky: without a change log it is hard to show in a dispute — an overtime claim, say — that the record is unaltered. In case of doubt that works against the employer, because the burden of proof sits with them.

Two years. § 16 (2) of the Working Hours Act requires that period for records of hours beyond eight per working day, and § 17 of the Minimum Wage Act for mini-jobs and the sectors listed in § 2a of the Act to Combat Undeclared Work. For the total-working-time duty derived from the Occupational Safety Act there is no separate statutory period yet; the draft bill would extend the two years to all records. They must be kept so that the supervisory authority can follow them.

The Working Hours Act treats missing records under § 16 (2) as an administrative offence with fines up to 30,000 euros. The duty to record total working time, derived from the Occupational Safety Act, is not directly subject to a fine so far. The supervisory authority can, however, order you under § 22 (3) of the Occupational Safety Act to introduce a recording system, and failing to follow such an enforceable order carries fines up to 30,000 euros under § 25. The draft bill would make the recording duty itself finable. The more common damage arises elsewhere: without solid records you are in a weak position in overtime disputes.

Yes. Neither trust-based working time nor mobile work is exempt, because the duty follows from the Occupational Safety Act, which covers all employees. Trust-based working time remains possible: it means trusting people with when they work, not doing without recording it. The Federal Labour Court has not ruled on it explicitly, and the 2025 coalition agreement wants to keep trust-based working time.

Independently of the general obligation, § 17 of the Minimum Wage Act requires records within seven days for mini-jobs and for the sectors listed in § 2a of the Act to Combat Undeclared Work — construction, hospitality, logistics and building cleaning among them. That duty predates the Federal Labour Court decision and continues unchanged.