Employers in the EU now have to record their staff’s working hours systematically!
Today, we’ll give you a brief overview of the expected changes in the work time tracking with tips for a quick and efficient implementation of the new specifications using products from our VNClagoon software stack: VNCproject and VNCtask.
The court decision
According to a decision of the European Court of Justice of 14 May 2019, employers should be committed to systematically recording the total working time of their employees. All EU countries will have to enforce this, the EU judges decided now in Luxembourg.
According to the decision, this is the only way to check whether permissible working hours might be exceeded and to ensure workers’ rights guaranteed under EU law (Case C-55/18). The judgment could have a major impact on everyday working life in all EU countries. After all, working hours are not systematically recorded in all industries. Also home office or field service would therefore have to be registered in the future, for example by hourly time tracking via apps or electronic recording on a laptop. Business calls in the evening or e-mails from home could also fall under the obligation to register.
Current legislation:
According to information from trade unions, the German Working Hours Act currently only requires overtime to be registered after the usual eight hours of regular work. Trade unionists have been complaining for a long time that this is actually only possible if the regular working hours are also recorded. (Source: Handelsblatt)
One billion unpaid overtime hours in Germany
In 2017, according to a report in the Bundestag (Federal Parliament), 2127 million overtime hours were accumulated in Germany. However, only half of the extra hours worked have been paid, about one billion hours remained unpaid! That harms both sides.
Employees should receive appropriate compensation for actually necessary extra work and, of course, companies should take counter measures in case too much overtime is done regularly. Processes, tools, software and workload have to be carefully evaluated to plan better assignment of work and to avoid permanent overtime.
According to a survey by Pronova BKK, every second employee in Germany feels threatened by a burn-out, 87% of respondents feel stressed. The main reason for the feeling of total mental and physical exhaustion is constant time pressure (34 percent), followed by emotional stress from customers or patients (30 percent), overtime and a bad working environment (29 percent each).
It’s about time that the affected companies counteract! Efficiency and productivity can be improved by a good management of working time.
Happy workers will stay in the company instead of taking their leave!
5 tips for reasonable recording of working time:
- Introduce straightforward ways for work time tracking in your organization (time tracking must go fast!)
- Enable time recording even when your employees are working in the home office or on the go (field service)
- A combination of a desktop application with an app would be ideal
- If time recording systems, e.g. time clocks are already existing, extend them with online and mobile time tracking
- Document the implementation and inform your employees about the benefits!
Whether and to what extent regulations based on trust and flexible arrangements, which are attractive both to the employee and to the employer, may still be used in the future can not yet be estimated after this judgment. Admittedly this can hardly be prevented.
The fact is that, in the future, detection options have to be created, even in small companies or start-ups.
These should provide not only the recording of attendance times in the company but also offer options for hour recording on the desktop and mobile devices with appropriate synchronization.
Good and above all carefully planned change management is essential for the introduction of new software solutions. Introduce the new time tracking tools in short videos and during regular team meetings. Engage users in the decision-making phase and clearly state the benefits!
Conclusion: A good, uncomplicated and prudently introduced software for working time recording should be in the interest of every employee and also in the interest of the company! Existing systems should be expanded meaningfully.
With VNCproject and VNCtask, our software stack VNClagoon offers quickly implementable solutions for workload planning and time recording.
Why VNCtask?
- All-in-one solution to manage your task lists and tasks.
- Download and use for free for individual users!
- Time recording (also mobile) and synchronization between your devices
- Delegate tasks and track the progress
- VNCtask can be used on any smartphone or mobile device. You can keep track of your current tasks and add new tasks anytime, anywhere.
- Super secure: the open source backend in combination with highly secure hosting in Switzerland makes VNCtask an extremely secure software for your task management.
- Integrate VNCtask into VNCproject and work as a team in your organization.
- Take advantage of timesheets, workload planning and extensive evaluation of recorded working hours in VNCproject.
Free download of the VNCtask app:
For Apple devices (iOS): 
for Android devices: 
For teams we recommend VNCtask Professional, best in combination with VNCproject!
If you want to know more about VNCtask or VNCproject, visit our website or contact us via email.
VNCtask, our solution for to-do lists and task management, helps you delegate tasks, increase team efficiency, and give employees and freelancers a good overview of the tasks they need to accomplish at all times. Whether in the office or on the road with the VNCtask app. More blog articles about VNCtask:
