Employers must now record Working Time

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) have held in Federacion de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) v Deutsche Bank SAE that an employer must keep records of an employee’s hours worked to fulfil their obligations under the Working Time Directive.

The CCOO is a Trade Union in Spain. They brought a group action before the National High Court in Spain. The CCOO requested the Court to make a declaration stating that Deutsche Bank was obliged to record the actual daily working time of its employees, as the hours on a particular day were not recorded.

The Advocate General earlier this year gave his opinion and suggested that the Working Time Directive required employers to keep these records and the CJEU has now agreed. The Court stated that if there was no requirement to keep these records then it would be impossible to objectively and reliably determine the number of hours worked by a worker or when this work was carried out.

This Judgment means that in order for a Member State to comply, they must transfer the Working Time Directive into national law and they must require employers to keep records of the hours worked by their staff force.

This means that if EU law remains in force in the UK, the Government will have to amend both Working Time Regulations to avoid claims against them for a failure to transpose the Directive.

If you are looking for advice about your obligations as an employer or how changes in EU law relating to employment matters might affect your business, do not hesitate to contact a member of our Employment Team!