Federal Labor Court: European regulations on working hours strengthen occupational health and safety

In a recent decision, the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG) has made a significant contribution to the discussion on the possible need to record working hours and emphasized the primarily protective nature of European labour law. Background: In order to justify a claim for compensation for overtime worked, an employee must firstly demonstrate that he or she has performed work in excess of normal working hours or has made himself or herself available to do so on the employer’s instructions. Since the employer only has to pay compensation for overtime that it has arranged, the employee must secondly show that the employer expressly or impliedly ordered, tolerated or subsequently approved the overtime worked.

According to a recent ruling by the Federal Labor Court (case no. 5 AZR 359/21), these principles developed some time ago by the Federal Labor Court regarding the distribution of the burden of presentation and proof for the performance of overtime hours by the employee and their causation by the employer are not changed by the obligation to introduce a system for measuring the daily working hours performed by the employee, which is based on Union law. Further information can be found on Haufe’s pages on current case law for operational practice.