Summary
The Working Hours Act was amended on 1 July 2024 and requires all employers to record their employees’ daily working hours to ensure rest periods and a maximum average of 48 hours per week. Employers are free to choose their own methods, but the system must be objective, reliable and accessible, and the data must be retained for five years. Self-organised workers may be exempted following a specific assessment.
Short answer
The Working Hours Act was amended on 1 July 2024, so that all employers are now obliged to record their employees’ working hours. The aim is to ensure compliance with the rules on rest periods and a maximum average weekly working time of 48 hours. You decide for yourselves how to record this – provided the system is objective, reliable and accessible – and the information must be retained for five years. Certain employees, known as ‘self-schedulers’, may be exempted.
What changes did the Working Hours Act bring in 2024?
The amendment to the Working Hours Act introduced a formal obligation to keep records. This follows a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which established that employers must be able to document each employee’s working hours. The rules on rest periods and maximum working hours are not new, but they must now be verifiable through a record-keeping system.
Who is covered?
This requirement applies to all employees – regardless of the size or sector of the business, and regardless of whether the employee is full-time, part-time, in a flex job or a young worker. Even an employee who only works a few hours a week must record their hours. A managing director is not typically an employee and is therefore, as a general rule, not covered by this requirement.
What needs to be recorded?
You must register each employee’s total daily working hours – that is, the number of hours worked that day. There is no requirement to record at what time of day the work was carried out. If an employee works 7.5 hours in the office and later 1 hour from home, 8.5 hours are recorded. There is freedom of choice regarding the method used: the system can range from a spreadsheet or physical timesheets to a proper time-recording system, provided it is objective, reliable and accessible. For employees with fixed working hours, it is permitted to have the system automatically fill in the agreed schedule, so that the employee only needs to note any deviations themselves, such as overtime.
Availability and storage
The records must be accessible to the employee so that they can view their own hours. You must retain the information for 5 years after the end of the period used to calculate the average weekly working hours.
The 48-hour rule and rest periods
The working time regulations themselves remain unchanged. On average, an employee must not work more than 48 hours a week – including overtime – calculated over a four-month period. In addition, the rules regarding a minimum of 11 consecutive hours’ rest within every 24-hour period and one day off per week apply.
Exception: self-organisers
Certain employees may be exempt from time recording, the 48-hour rule, the rules on breaks and the rules on night work. These are the so-called ‘self-organisers’, where working hours either cannot be measured or determined in advance, or where the employee determines them entirely themselves whilst also holding a managerial role or being able to make independent decisions. This is a narrow exception that requires a specific, individual assessment – entire groups, such as all salaried employees, cannot be exempted. If an employee is to be exempted, this must be expressly stated in the employment contract or an addendum.
Opting out of the 48-hour rule
In very exceptional cases, a so-called ‘opt-out’ may be agreed, whereby an employee is permitted to work more than 48 hours per week on average. This applies only to employees who are covered by a collective agreement on on-call duty and who perform functions critical to society. An ‘opt-out’ requires the employee’s consent, which may be withdrawn at any time without consequences.
What happens if the rules are not followed?
If you do not comply with the rules, you risk sanctions in the form of compensation payments to employees and fines, and the Danish Working Environment Authority may intervene. Failure to keep records may also be relevant in a case concerning whether an employee’s rights have been respected.
We’ll help you comply with the Working Hours Act
A simple, fixed routine for time recording makes it easy to comply with the Working Hours Act – without it becoming a burden in day-to-day life. At Dansk Løn Service, we help ensure that time recording is seamlessly integrated with payroll. Read also our Guide to time recording, or Contact us.
The rules have been simplified here, and the assessment of self-employed workers and the opt-out provision is particularly complex. If in doubt, seek specific advice on employment law.