Specific working hours recording may be necessary for EU members

The Advocate General of the European Union Court of Justice has made a suggestion that EU members should order businesses to keep records of the exact hours worked by their full-time employees, in order to fully comply with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations.

This was announced thanks to a Spanish court case. A Spanish trade union, Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), claimed that Deutsche Bank needed to have set up a system to record the actual hours worked by its employees in order to stay in line with the Working Time Regulations.

At the time, Deutsche Bank recorded absences on a calendar, but not the hours worked for each day.

This case was referred to the European Court of Justice.

Although the current Regulations do not mention any requirements for setting up a time and attendance system, the Advocate General made it clear that his opinion was that this kind of recording is essential in order to prove that the Regulations are being adhered to, from both the employer and the employee’s point of view.

The Advocate General’s statement is not a binding judgement, but his opinion is generally followed by the European Union Court of Justice. If this was put into practise before the UK left the EU, the current UK rules that employers simply need to keep “adequate” records about working time limits would not be suitable anymore. All employers would need to start using systems which recorded their employees’ working hours.

TENSOR TIME AND ATTENDANCE SYSTEMS – THE EASY WAY TO ADHERE TO EMPLOYMENT REGULATIONS

Luckily, the Tensor Time and Attendance System can help employers with these regulations. Our flagship WinTA.NET software includes all of the rules and stipulations included in the Working Time Regulations. These can be altered to suit your situation: for example, to record your opted-out employees or set a fortnightly rest pattern.

Should you try to set a shift pattern which would infringe the Working Time Regulations, the system will pre-warn you.

You can also run reports which show helpful data such as:

• Average hours worked during any period.
• Instances when rest day rules have been broken.
• When night workers are due a health assessment.

The context-sensitive search facility enables you to search using only part of a code or name, and you can filter results using standard and customised filters.

In our time and attendance system, the working hours are recorded through employees clocking in and out. We provide either contactless radio-frequency smart-cards or biometric fingerprint readers for employees to clock in and out with.

This data is then sent almost immediately to the central WinTA.NET system, where it can be utilised in a number of ways, such as reporting for HR absence management, or exporting for payroll.

For more information about how our Time and Attendance system can help you or to Book a Demo, please get in touch.