The new law, in short
On 1 July 2024, it will be a legal requirement for all Danish employers to ensure that their employees register their work time
According to the law, all employees have the right to a limitation of maximum working hours and rest periods. Specifically, employees are entitled to:
- An average weekly working time of less than 48 hours within a four-month period
- A minimum rest period of 11 consecutive hours per day (24 hours)
- A weekly day off
Why do we need such a law?
In June 2017, the Spanish trade union CCOO filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank. The union believed that the bank should have a system for recording the daily working hours of its employees, as it suspected that the employees were working too much.
In 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment stating that Member States must require employers to establish processes that ensure employees’ actual daily working hours are recorded.
The new law on time registration is, therefore, the result of the EU’s efforts to protect workers from overtime.
What will the law entail for you as an employee?
What will the law entail for you as an employer?
As an employer, you also gain a better overview. It becomes easier to see how staff resources are used and who is responsible for which projects around the organization – if your time registration system allows you to link registrations to projects.
The database, which will be built up through continuous entries, can also provide insights into the average time certain types of tasks take – this is a very good starting point for project planning.
In addition, the law will mean more transparent 1:1 conversations, as the conversation topics can be backed up by data that ensures precise communication between manager and employee.
Requirements for the time registration system
What should the system be able to do?
The system that employees must use for time registration must be objective, reliable, and accessible. This includes allowing employees to access information about their entries.
The system must measure daily and weekly working hours. Last but not least, the information in the system must be available for five years from the time it is entered.
What does the system not need to be able to do?
As we mentioned earlier in the blog post, project-based time registration has several benefits. So, in our opinion, it is definitely a good idea to investigate the possibility of acquiring a time registration system that allows time registration to be connected to current projects—however, this is not a legal requirement.
You just have to make sure to acquire a system where employees can and must only record their total daily working hours – there is, therefore, no requirement to specify time periods or anything else.
Do you already have a system for time registration?
Do you want to know more?
Our mTIME system provides you and your employees with a simple solution with an intuitive user interface – both for administrators and individual employees. With the option of automatic registration of working hours, your employees only need to register deviations from their normal working hours, which saves time and simplifies the process.
If you are already a customer with us, all data will, of course, be automatically sent to your payroll system so that everything is gathered in one place.
Contact us to learn more about mTIME or by booking a free demo in the calendar. Let’s achieve a more efficient and trouble-free time recording for your company together!
