What changes with the ministerial draft bill on working time reform?

Bas combines two demands that until now were separate: loosening the daily maximum working time in favour of a weekly view – and anchoring the obligation to record working time in law. The two are meant to come together.

Is trust-based working hours compatible with an obligation to record working time?

This is one of the central open questions that the draft bill answers: yes. Trust-based working hours remain permissible as a model, but no longer without documentation. Even under such models, employers have to make sure that breaches of working time and rest period rules become visible.

What changes for rest periods?

The statutory rest period of 11 hours between two periods of work could be dropped by collective agreement – but only if collective rules on health protection going beyond the current standard are agreed at the same time.

What changes for maximum working time?

In future, the parties to a collective agreement are to be able to agree a weekly rather than a daily maximum working time. Longer hours on individual days would then be possible – provided the weekly limit is observed.

Working Hours Act reform 2026: what changes

A year after the coalition agreement: is the working time reform coming now?

A year after the coalition agreement, the SPD-led Federal Ministry of Labour is now getting down to business. Back then, the CDU/CSU and the SPD agreed not only on working time tracking but also on a switch from a daily to a weekly maximum working time. With the ministerial draft bill, that mandate is now being carried out in concrete terms for the first time.

Dirk Wiese, the SPD's parliamentary group manager, is confident that the CDU/CSU and the SPD will reach agreement on the reform of the Working Hours Act. "Following the clear arrangement in the coalition agreement, there are no plans to abolish the Working Hours Act; the plan is to make a weekly maximum working time possible while at the same time making digital time tracking mandatory, so that there is no more unpaid overtime," Wiese explains.

What the draft working time reform provides for in concrete terms

The ministerial draft bill contains two central changes that are politically tied directly to one another.

More flexible working hours by collective agreement

In future, the parties to a collective agreement are to be able to agree a weekly rather than a daily maximum working time. That means: people could work longer on individual days, as long as the weekly average is right. The current rest period of 11 hours between two periods of work – which employers have found irksome for years – would fall away under this model. The condition, however, is that collective rules on health protection going beyond existing rights are agreed at the same time.

A documentation obligation as the counterweight

As a counterbalance to the greater flexibility, the obligation to record working time is now to be anchored expressly and in detail in the Act. Employers will have to record the start, end and duration of daily working time electronically, as a rule on the day the work is performed. Responsibility always stays with the employer – even though the recording may be done by employees themselves or by third parties.

What the working time reform means for the current legal position

The Working Hours Act as it currently stands provides for a daily maximum working time of 8 hours – up to 10 hours under strict conditions – as well as a rest period of 11 hours between two periods of work. Until now, only what goes beyond the contractually agreed working time, plus Sunday and public holiday work, had to be documented.

The pressure on the legislator is not new: back in 2019 the European Court of Justice (EuGH/ECJ) ruled that all EU member states must make an objective, reliable and accessible system for recording working time a legal requirement. In 2022 the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) concluded from this that the obligation already applies in Germany under existing law. Courts have been ruling accordingly ever since – but a dedicated law is still missing to this day.

A possible coalition conflict is slowing the reform down

It is no secret that the CDU/CSU and the SPD do not always see eye to eye on the Working Hours Act. The draft by Bas's predecessor Hubertus Heil failed in 2023 – and the new ministerial draft is likely to give rise to debate as well. Whether it has a better chance than its predecessor is hard to say. What is certain: it is a further – and now considerably more concrete – step towards working time reform. For companies that are still waiting and seeing, the pressure is growing.

Act now instead of being forced to react

The direction is clear, even if the law is still some way off. Anyone who switches to digital time tracking today gains time and certainty: the changeover runs in an orderly way, employees can get used to it and processes can be set up properly before the legislator sets the pace.

You can try clockin free for 14 days with no obligation – and see for yourself how straightforward legally compliant time tracking can be.