Who the limits apply to
The Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG) protects employees in Germany. Under section 2(1) no. 3 of the Posted Workers Act (AEntG), the German rules on maximum hours, minimum rest and breaks also apply to employers based abroad. An employee of a Polish company working on a German site is therefore covered by the ArbZG, even though the contract is Polish.
How many hours a day
| Case | Limit | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Normal working day | 8 hours | s. 3 ArbZG |
| Extended working day | up to 10 hours with an 8 hour average (6 months or 24 weeks) | s. 3 ArbZG |
| Night worker (more than 2 hours between 11 pm and 6 am) | 8 hours, up to 10 with an average of 8 hours over a calendar month or 4 weeks | s. 2, s. 6(2) ArbZG |
A working day (Werktag) in Germany is any day that is not a Sunday or public holiday, so Saturday counts. Section 3(2) of the Federal Leave Act (BUrlG) defines it this way. With six working days, the average limit is 48 hours a week.
Working time runs from the start to the end of work, excluding breaks. Hours worked for several employers are added together (s. 2(1) ArbZG).
Breaks and rest
- More than 6 and up to 9 hours of work: at least 30 minutes of breaks in total.
- More than 9 hours: at least 45 minutes in total.
- Breaks may be split into blocks of at least 15 minutes, but their timing must be fixed in advance.
- Nobody may work more than 6 hours in a row without a break (s. 4 ArbZG).
- At least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest must separate the end of one working day from the start of the next (s. 5 ArbZG).
Breaks do not count as working time. With 10 hours of work and a 45 minute break, a day on site lasts almost 11 hours, leaving just over 13 before the next shift.
Sundays and public holidays
Employees may not work on Sundays and public holidays from midnight to midnight (s. 9 ArbZG). The exceptions in section 10 cover, among others, emergency services, hospitals, hospitality, energy supply and work without which equipment, raw materials or results of work would be damaged. An ordinary construction schedule is not among them.
Section 14 allows temporary deviations in emergencies and exceptional cases that arise regardless of anyone's will. Anyone who works on a Sunday gets a substitute rest day within two weeks; after work on a public holiday falling on a working day, within eight weeks. At least 15 Sundays a year must stay work free (s. 11 ArbZG).
When a collective agreement changes the rules
Section 7 ArbZG allows a collective agreement (Tarifvertrag), or a works agreement based on one, to set a different reference period for the 8 hour average or to shorten rest by up to two hours where the nature of the work requires it and the reduction is offset. These deviations apply only where a specific collective agreement provides for them. An individual employment contract cannot introduce them.
Time records
In construction, the employer records the start, end and length of each person's working day no later than the seventh calendar day after the work and keeps the records for at least two years (s. 17(1) Minimum Wage Act, MiLoG, with s. 2a SchwarzArbG). The documents needed for an inspection must be kept in Germany, in German, for the duration of the contract (s. 17(2) MiLoG).
In addition, section 16(2) ArbZG requires every hour above eight per working day to be recorded and the records kept for two years.
- Start and end times recorded for every person, every day.
- Break times fixed in advance.
- At least 11 hours between shifts.
- Days over 8 hours offset by shorter days within the reference period.
- Sunday work only in the cases of section 10 or 14, with a substitute rest day.
- The text of the ArbZG available to workers, for example posted in the site welfare container (s. 16(1)).