§ Law & obligations · 3 min read
Record-keeping duty — clearly explained
The short version
Working time must be recorded. For all employees. Since 2022.
The duty does not come from a new law, but from two decisions:
- In 2019 the European Court of Justice ruled that member states must oblige employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system for recording working time.
- In 2022 the Federal Labour Court (decision of 13.09.2022, 1 ABR 22/21) found that this duty already applies in Germany — derived from § 3 (2) no. 1 Arbeitsschutzgesetz (German Occupational Safety and Health Act). No new law is needed for it.
Anyone still waiting for “the law is yet to come” is waiting for the details — not for the duty.
What must be recorded
| Item | Required? |
|---|---|
| Start of daily working time | yes |
| End of daily working time | yes |
| Duration of daily working time | yes |
| Rest breaks | practically indispensable for checking compliance |
| Who recorded it and when it was changed | decisive for its value as evidence |
A mere total of hours at the end of the month is not sufficient. “160 hours in March” says nothing about whether the maximum working time or the rest period was observed.
Who does this apply to?
To all employees, regardless of business size and industry. Including mini-jobbers, temporary workers, working students and apprentices.
In addition, there is the stricter duty under § 17 MiLoG (German Minimum Wage Act). It applies to:
- all mini-jobbers
- all employees with a gross wage below the applicable threshold
- all employees in the industries covered by the SchwarzArbG (German Act to Combat Undeclared Work): construction, restaurants and accommodation, passenger transport, forwarding, transport and logistics, fairground trade, forestry, building cleaning, trade fair construction, meat industry, prostitution trade, security services
There, the rule is: record within seven days, retain for at least two years, fines of up to €30,000. Inspections are carried out by customs (FKS, German financial control of undeclared work) — unannounced.
The planned change in the law
What Zeitflex does for this
- Start, end and duration are recorded at the moment of clocking in/out, not estimated afterwards.
- Every change creates a new version and keeps the old one, with person, time and reason.
- The break rules under § 4 ArbZG are applied.
- Breaches of maximum working time and rest periods are detected and reported (from Starter).
- The retention periods are observed by the product — see Retention periods.
May I delegate the recording?
Yes. Recording may be delegated to the employees — the responsibility remains with the employer. In practice this means: the business has to carry out spot checks and step in if someone systematically does not clock in.
Still stuck?
The limits for working time, breaks and rest periods are explained under Break and rest period rules.
Last checked on . We check every article against the application — if something no longer matches, that is a bug and not a difference of opinion.
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- Break and rest period rulesMaximum working time, minimum break, rest period and Sunday work — the figures from the Working Hours Act and what Zeitflex checks of them.
- Retention periodsHow long working-time data, sick notes and payroll records must be kept, which periods Zeitflex has set for each type of data, and what the nightly deletion run does.
- The mini-job limit: €603 in 2026How the limit is calculated, why the year counts and not the month, what counts and what does not — and who gets the early warning.
- Correcting a forgotten clock entryHow to add missing or wrong times — with a reason, traceably and without deleting the original record. And who gets reminded after 14 hours.