Flexible arrangement of working hours

In addition to flexitime and trust-based working time, which are generally known and popular, there are other legal and contractual instruments for making work more flexible. But how is flexible working time organisation still possible after the ruling of the European Court of Justice of 14.5.2019 on the recording of working time (C-55/18 "Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) / Deutsche Bank SAE")?

A loss of flexibility is feared by employers and employees alike (keyword: end of trust-based working time, introduction of the time clock for all).

The on-call work in § 12 Act on Part-Time Work and Fixed-Term Employment Contracts (TzBfG) promises flexibility. Companies can request the employee's work performance as it needs it at the moment. That sounds good at first. However, this flexibility refers exclusively to the location of the working time, not to the extent of the working time. In practice, this form of working time is therefore used rather cautiously.

The bridge part-time work introduced in 2019 was an important step towards greater flexibility. It codifies the previously possible agreement on a temporary reduction in working time. There is no legal entitlement to the counterpart of this, the limited increase in working time. It can, however, be agreed by mutual consent between the parties if there is an objective reason for the fixed-term.

The revocable arrangement of a part of the working time also offers flexibilization. However, it has rarely been used so far - perhaps out of ignorance.

We are happy to advise you on various working time models, their design, the necessity and form of working time recording and other topics related to working time.

Dr. Julia Pfrogner has published an essay on flexible working hours in BB 2018, 500 ff. We will be happy to send it to you on request; a short e-mail is sufficient.

Not only employers count on our expertise, but also politicians. For example, Vielmeier and Rieble advised the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) on the controversial question of whether and how the ECJ ruling on the recording of working hours of May 2019 should be implemented in national law.