The Working Hours Act regulates exactly how much workers can work per day and week, which applies to breaks – and whether Sunday work is permitted.
Many people know this situation: many colleagues are sick in the office, but the documents still have to be edited up to a certain date. Clearly: they can hardly get around overtime and overtime.
But your boss must not let this tear. On the contrary: in this case you are entitled to compensate for this work. This regulates the so -called Working Hours Act – one of the most important laws for employees in Germany. T-Online explains how many hours of workers per day and week can work at the maximum, which regulations apply on Sundays and when they are entitled to breaks.
The Working Hours Act (ArbZG) regulates how much workers can work at most. In addition, it is laid down how breaks, rest periods, night work and work can be dealt with on Sundays and public holidays. It serves to protect the employees from working too much. That is why it is part of occupational safety.
The Working Hours Act applies to almost all employees. Exceptional regulations apply There are also other rules for civil servants and soldiers. Logically, the self -employed also do not fall under the Working Hours Act.
According to the Working Hours Act, working hours are the time from the beginning to the end of work, breaks are excluded. If you go to work with several employers, the working hours will be added together.
The way to work, however, is not part of working hours. Exception from this: If the employee already works on the way to work, for example on a business trip by plane.
Also relocating is usually not a working time. But there can also be exceptions here.
- Termination due to illness: Is that allowed?
- Labor law: Can my boss quit if I lack unexcused?
The standby time is divided into three different categories, according to which the working time rules also differ. An overview:
- On -call service: This is the time when an employee is in a place agreed with his employer and is waiting for an assignment. An example is, for example, when a doctor in the hospital is waiting for her service in an extra room. The on -call service is considered working hours, which is why the employer must comply with certain regulations for his employee. For example, the employee is entitled to eleven hours of rest after 24 hours of working time (including on -call service) (see below).
- On -call service: The situation is different when an employee stays at home and waiting for a call from the employer. As a rule, only the time that an employee has really worked is considered working hours. In contrast to the on -call service, the time when an employee sleeps at home is not a working time. The Federal Labor Court decided in March 2021 like a on -call duty and not like a on -call service.
- Willingness to work: This is the time that an employee is not working, but is ready to work. What is meant is a bakery seller who is currently not serving a customer. The times of willingness to work are fully considered working hours.
Yes, they have. The Working Hours Act regulates when an employee can take breaks. With a working time of more than six hours, a legally required break of at least 30 minutes applies.
With a working time of more than nine hours, the employee has a legally required break of 45 minutes. Your employer can divide this time into three 15-minute breaks.
- Working time law: When you have to take breaks in your job
If you don’t take the break, you are not entitled to have the time paid out. In this case you were unlucky.
The so -called rest periods are also regulated in the Working Hours Act. The time between two working hours is rest time. There must be at least eleven hours between these working hours in which the employee does not work.
- Example: An employee in a gas station works until midnight in one day and is supposed to start again the next day at 8 a.m. This is not legally permitted.
Exceptions apply to this rule – for example to doctors and nurses in hospitals, for working in restaurants, agriculture or in transport companies. Separate rules also apply to long -distance drivers.
The time of on -call service is also part of the rest period (see above). On the other hand, standby service and willingness to work are working hours.
This is clearly regulated: one employee can work a maximum of 48 hours a week. Viewed in the year, employees may work for a maximum of 48 weeks, the legal vacation entitlement is four weeks.
Employees are only allowed to work for a maximum of eight hours on one working day (§3 ArbZG). Pause times are not included.
- Example: An employee who starts working at 7.30 a.m. can work until 4 p.m. The lunch break would be half an hour difference.
In exceptional cases, your employer may expand the daily working time – but a maximum of ten hours. But he then has to make sure that they work less afterwards.
However, it is possible that your employer will agree to a special regulation about the maximum working hours- via a collective agreement or an operating or service agreement.
The Working Hours Act, for example, regulates that by regulation in the collective agreement, the working hours may also be longer than ten hours on one working day, “if working hours are regularly and to a significant willingness to work or willingness to work,” says §7 Paragraph 1 ArbZG.
In the collective agreement or a service agreement, other regulations can also be made for rest or break times.
- Part -time work: So the change of full time works to part-time
At a flexitime, two models are differentiated, the working time rules apply to both.
- Simple flexitime: Here the employee can determine within a temporal framework when he starts with work and stops. With the simple flexitage period, working hours are usually not recorded. However, you should make sure not to work too much.
- Qualified flexitage period: Here the employee can decide whether he makes longer or shorter – and offset them with overtime or free time. The time is usually recorded in the qualified flexitage period. So you have the opportunity to check not to work more permanently than the statutory time.
No, working on Sundays and public holidays is prohibited according to §9 ArbZG. These days are there to rest.
But here too, exceptions apply to certain industries: people who are employed in nursing homes, hospitals, hospitals, petrol stations, museums, theaters, restaurants or pubs, for example on Sundays and public holidays (§10 ArbZG).
However, you are entitled to get free at least 15 Sundays a year. Extra -rings work for trunk drivers or shift companies.
