Working hours and rest periods

1. Daily limits

The Arbeitszeitgesetz sets a standard maximum working day of eight hours. It can be extended to ten, but only if the average across a reference period of six months or 24 weeks comes back to eight.

That averaging requirement is what makes the ten-hour figure widely misunderstood. Ten hours is not a permitted normal day: it is a permitted peak that has to be balanced by shorter days elsewhere in the period. An employer running permanent ten-hour days is in breach.

2. Breaks and rest between shifts

Breaks are prescribed by the length of the day, they are unpaid, and they are compulsory. You cannot choose to work through them to leave earlier, because the rule exists for health and safety rather than as a benefit you may waive.

A break must be a genuine interruption known in advance. Being on call at your desk is not a break.

3. Sundays, public holidays and night work

Work on Sundays and public holidays is prohibited in principle, with a long list of exceptions covering hospitals, emergency services, transport, hospitality, media, energy and continuous industrial processes. Where Sunday work is permitted, a substitute rest day must be given.

Night work is defined by law and carries additional entitlements: either a supplement to pay or additional time off, plus a right to regular occupational health checks. Night workers also have a right to move to day work in defined circumstances, including where a doctor certifies it or where they care for a young child.

• At least 15 Sundays a year must remain free of work
• A substitute rest day is required where Sunday work is permitted
• Night work attracts a supplement or compensatory time off
• Free occupational health checks for night workers, at regular intervals
• A right to transfer to day work in defined circumstances

4. Recording working time

Employers are required to record working time. This developed through European and German case law and applies well beyond the sectors where time clocks were traditional, including to office and salaried staff.

It works in your favour. Where a dispute arises about overtime, an employer with no records is in a considerably weaker position, and courts have not been sympathetic to employers who failed to record and then disputed the hours.

Keep your own record regardless. A simple note of start, finish and break times is enough, and it is the difference between a claim you can prove and one you cannot.

5. Part-time and flexible arrangements

Employees have a statutory right to request reduced hours after a qualifying period of employment, where the employer is above a size threshold. The employer must have operational reasons to refuse, and cost alone is generally not enough.

There is also a bridge part-time arrangement (Brückenteilzeit), which allows a temporary reduction with a right to return to your previous hours. This is genuinely useful and widely unknown: without it, agreeing a reduction can mean losing the higher hours permanently.

• A right to request reduced hours after a qualifying period, at employers above a size threshold
• Brückenteilzeit: a temporary reduction with a right to return to previous hours
• Flexitime and working time accounts, where a works agreement provides for them
• Trust-based working time, which does not remove the statutory limits or the recording duty
• Mobile working and home office, which are generally a matter of agreement rather than a statutory right