Bill On Recording Of Working Time Now Passed Into Law

• Published date: 06 March 2024
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Contract of Employment
• Law Firm: Kromann Reumert
• Author: Ms Marianne Granh'j, Maria Bekke Eiersted and Kristian Bro

On 23 January 2024, the Danish Parliament passed the Bill which, among other things, requires employers to install, by 1 July 2024, a system allowing employees to record their daily working time.

What is new since the Bill was tabled?

No amendments had been proposed, and the Bill was therefore passed unchanged. However, the committee debate has resulted in various substantive clarifications and/or supplementary responses regarding the Bill. By way of example, the Minister for Employment has confirmed that an employee's daily working time can be prefilled in the working time recording system so that only deviations from the agreed and/or scheduled working time need to be recorded in the system. The Minister for Employment has also confirmed that the Bill requires recording of employees' daily working time only and not the exact start and end time of the work.

Nevertheless, in order to ensure documentation of compliance with rest time rules, employers may consider a recording system that also records the start and end time of each employee's daily working time, including breaks.

New employer obligations

As of 1 July 2024, employers must have an objective and reliable working time recording system that meets at least the following requirements:

• records each employee's daily working time (some employees may be exempt, see below);
• is accessible and allows each employee to access their own information in the system; and
• retains working time records for a continuous period of 5 years from expiry of the reference period.

In addition, each employer is allowed significant freedom to design the working time recording system in a way they consider suitable. The Bill does not require purchase and/or use of a specific time recording system. If an employer already has an existing working time recording system, it may be possible for the employer to continue using it or to customise it.

Can certain employees be exempt from the time...