Employers must have systems for recording daily working hours

What does the new ruling from the European Court of Justice mean for employers?

Employers will have to ensure they have procedures for recording the daily number of hours worked by their workers.This follows a ruling from the European Court of Justice.  

The European Court of Justice decided that EU working time rules require employers to set up “objective, reliable and accessible systems” for measuring the time each worker works each day and week. Without that information, a worker cannot to be sure they are benefiting from the 48 hour average weekly working time limit and their rights to daily and weekly rest.

What are the current UK working time laws?

The UK’s working time laws require employers to keep adequate records to show they are complying with the average weekly working time limit and limits for young and night workers. However, they do not require employers to measure the daily hours each worker works, nor daily and weekly rest periods.

Courts may now interpret UK laws as requiring employers to record daily and weekly working time so they can show that workers are getting the correct daily and weekly rest periods. 

Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) v Deutsche Bank SAE