Global Compliance Desk – Denmark
Denmark: New Requirements on Registration of Working Hours
On January 23, 2024, the Danish Parliament adopted the Bill on Recording Working Time (“Bill”) wherein employers must implement an ‘objective, reliable, and accessible’ system for recording working hours. The new amendments to the Danish Act on Working Time will enter into force on July 1, 2024.
New Recording Requirement
Currently, there is no general requirement in legislation for the daily recording of employees’ working hours.
However, based on the ruling of the EU Court of Justice in case C-55/18, CCOO, the Danish Parliament has deemed it necessary to introduce a system for daily recording of working hours. The object of the Bill is to ensure compliance with the minimum standards under the Working Environment Act concerning working time, daily rest periods, breaks, weekly rest periods, annual leave, and aspects of night work, shifts, and work rhythm.
The Bill entails that employers must implement a system for recording working hours, wherein employers are obligated to ensure that the system is objective, reliable and makes it possible to measure the employee’s daily working time to ensure observance of the applicable rules on daily and weekly rest periods and maximum weekly working time.
There are no specific requirements on how this system should be designed and the employer shall have a free choice of how they organize the time registration system. It can be done both analog or digitally via, for example, an IT system or an App.
There shall be no requirement to register the start and end times of working hours, the only requirement is to register the total daily working hours.
Example – If an employee works from 9.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. and then again from 21.00 to 23.30 later that same day, the only requirement would be to register a total of 7.5 hours and not when the actual hours were placed. However, the 11-hour daily rest rule would still be applicable, and therefore the employer must ensure that a framework for the placement of working hours is established to ensure compliance with the 11- and 48-hour rules.
Option from Deviation from the requirement for a maximum weekly working time (“opt-out”)
Currently, the Working Time Act provides that an employee may not work more than 48 hours per week calculated as an average over 4 months.
The Bill introduces an option to deviate from the rule on maximum weekly working hours, for employees covered by a collective agreement who perform socially critical work functions on availability shifts (“opt-out”).
Such socially critical functions include e.g. offshore work, on-call monitoring and 24-hour activities, and activities that are characterized by the need to ensure continuous services or continuous production, e.g. when it comes to the press, radio, television, film production, postal service, and telecommunications, ambulance service, fire service, and civil protection.
The average weekly working hours in an opt agreement shall not exceed 60 hours per week calculated over a reference period of four months. However, a longer reference period can be agreed upon in the relevant collective agreement or local agreement if certain other conditions are met. While adhering to general principles for the protection of employees’ safety and health, it can be stipulated in the respective collective agreement or contract, for objective and technical reasons and the organization of work, that the reference period can be extended up to 12 months.
Recordkeeping – Information regarding employees’ working hours must be kept for 5 years after the end of the period used to calculate each employee’s average weekly working hours.
Takeaway – The proposed law is expected to take effect on July 1, 2024. To ensure compliance with this new law, employers must draft a policy for working time registration to be included in the employee handbook, install software, implement the time registration system, and get employees on board.
