5 Key points: New law on time tracking effective from July 1st
On July 1st, 2024, the new EU law on time tracking came into force in Denmark. With this law, there is also a deadline for businesses to implement a time tracking system. The law requires companies to implement a system that is objective, reliable, and accessible. In this blog post, we provide a clear overview of the legal requirements and offer a guide on how to track working hours flexibly. Here are our 5 points:
1. What does the time tracking law entail?
The law is based on a case from 2019 where the Spanish trade union CCOO sued Deutsche Bank, arguing that employees' rights were violated because they were unable to track overtime or enforce their right to rest periods.
Following this case, the European Court of Justice ruled that employers in EU member states must introduce an objective, reliable, and accessible time tracking system. The purpose of this law is to protect employees, as they are seen as the weaker part in the employment relationship.
A time tracking system ensures compliance with working time regulations for every employee. These regulations are already mandatory, and the system simply serves to document that the requirements are being met. Some of these requirements include:
- 48-hour rule: Employees cannot work more than an average of 48 hours per week over a four-calendar-month period.
- 11-hour rule: Employees must have 11 consecutive hours of rest within 24 hours.
- Employees are entitled to one weekly day off.
2. Who needs to time track working hours?
All employers with salaried employees must provide a time tracking system. This also applies to companies with only a few employees and associations. Similarly, all salaried employees in the company must track their working hours, regardless of their position or weekly hours. However, a company's director may be exempt if they are not a salaried employee.
3. What are the requirements for a time tracking system?
There is no requirement for the time tracking system to be digital. The requirements are that the system must be objective, reliable, and accessible, and that the information on working hours must be accessible for five years plus a reference period. A company can track working hours:
o Via an app
o Emails detailing working hours
o Physical or electronically completed schedules
o Sign-in terminals
These are just examples of methods for time tracking, and it is up to each company to decide what works best. However, the system must not contain errors, and the time records must reflect the actual working hours.
4. What needs to be recorded?
The employee must record their total daily working hours. However, there are no rules stating that the employee must specify when the work was performed, only the actual hours worked that day. Additionally, there is no requirement on when the employee must register their working hours.
The law may raise questions about what constitutes working time. Generally, working time refers to the period when the employee is at work, performing their tasks, and available for the employer. To ensure transparency regarding what is considered working time, we recommend creating a time tracking policy for your company.
5. Are there exceptions?
There are few employees exempt from the time tracking law. This includes self-schedulers, who are employees who set their own working hours or where working time cannot be predetermined. An employee in such a position is also exempt from certain parts of the working time regulations. However, it must be specified in the employee’s contract if they are exempt from the obligation to track their time.
