EU law requires employers to keep daily records of hours worked

Published on: 23/05/2019

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In Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) v Deutsche Bank SAE, a trade union in Spain brought a claim against Deutsche Bank, which did not keep a record of the hours its employees worked on a daily basis.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has decided that if there were no requirement to keep records “it would be impossible to determine objectively and reliably either the number of hours worked by the worker [or] when that work was done”.

This in turn would make it “excessively difficult, if not impossible in practice, for workers to ensure compliance with the rights conferred on them by Article 31(2) of the Charter [of Fundamental Rights maximum working hours] and by [the Working Time Directive], with a view to actually benefiting from the limitation on weekly working time and minimum daily and weekly rest periods provided for by that directive."

This means that national regulations of EU member states must require employers to keep records of hours worked. UK law does not do so at present.

In order to be compliant and while the UK remains a member of the EU, the government will risk claims against it if it does not amend the Working Time Regulations. These claims would be against the government for failure to transpose the Working Time directive into UK law rather than claims by employees against their employer.

However, employers delivering public services are at risk of claims by their employees if they do not keep a daily record of the hours worked by their employees.

Disclaimer

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