According to a recent decision of the European Court of Justice, all European countries must ensure that every employer has a system in place to measure the duration of time worked each day by each worker (blue and white collar). In a statement of May 14 The Court declared: “in order to ensure the effectiveness of the rights provided for in the Working Time Directive and the Charter, the Member States must require employers to set up an objective,
reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured. It is for the Member States to define the specific arrangements for implementing such a system, in particular the form that it must take, ….” The decision aims to enforce the limits on working hours established in the European Directive of 2003 on working time. Employers must refrain from making staff work more than 48 hours a week, and must grans every worker at least 11 consecutive hours of rest every 24 hours.
Companies who are currently not measuring staff working hours will probably have to change their HR practices in the future. A specific timeframe has not been set and will vary per country. Today, mandatory time registration in Belgium only exists in case of flexible working hours. Opinions differ as to the consequences of the decision: one lawyer describes the judgment as a “tsunami” that could lead to crazy situations, another lawyer expects little impact.
If this decision has also sparked the debate on the introduction of time registration in your company, you can always contact us at info@panderim.jobs for support in the field of working hours. We are happy to put you in contact with our candidates.