Germany’s Work-Hour Overhaul Inches Toward July Deal, Teachers Lead the Way with Digital Timekeeping
16.06.2026 - 18:54:00 | boerse-global.de
A landmark reform of Germany’s working-time rules is nearing a political breakthrough, driven by court rulings that have forced employers to track every minute their staff work. The proposed shift from a daily to a weekly cap on hours, coupled with mandatory digital time recording, is expected to be decided by the coalition committee on 1 July.
The push gained legal momentum in 2019, when the European Court of Justice demanded systematic timekeeping systems. Germany’s Federal Labour Court (BAG) doubled down on 13 September 2022, ruling that employers must record the entire working time of their employees. Now lawmakers are scrambling to translate those obligations into a flexible framework that keeps worker protection intact.
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Under the emerging compromise, a weekly maximum of 40 hours would replace the current daily limit. Individual shifts could stretch to as long as 13 hours, provided the weekly cap is respected. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has made digital time recording a non-negotiable condition for agreeing to the extra flexibility, arguing that only automated systems can police such long days without risking health and safety abuses.
Dirk Wiese, the SPD’s parliamentary manager, said in mid-June that he was confident a deal with the conservative CDU/CSU bloc was within reach. The Union is pushing for rapid enactment. The Left Party has rejected the plan outright.
While Berlin haggles, one state has already begun a real-world test. Bremen has launched the country’s first pilot project for digital timekeeping in schools. From the 2026/27 school year, nine schools will document every activity electronically. At the Carl von Ossietzky Gymnasium in Bremerhaven alone, roughly 60 teachers are logging their hours using the “Untis Arbeitszeit” app. The system captures classroom teaching, preparation, marking, parent meetings, conferences, and administrative tasks.
The aim is to generate hard data on the real workload of educators and to improve occupational safety. The software automatically flags violations of mandatory rest periods. The pilot runs until July 2027, with an initial evaluation due after the first half-year.
The hospitality industry, already accustomed to flexible schedules, is watching the national debate closely. The DEHOGA industry association has since the start of the year demanded a switch from daily to weekly limits. Current rules allow a maximum of eight hours per day, extendable to ten under certain conditions if compensatory time is granted. Yet the sector’s reality is far from a standard nine-to-five: 70 percent of hospitality workers occasionally work weekends, 51 percent do evening shifts, and 21 percent are on rotating schedules. Employers already track start, end, and duration of daily work, though no fixed format is prescribed.
