German Working Hours Act: Maximum Hours, Breaks and Rest

8 hours a day, 10 hours as an exception

Working time is the time from the start to the end of work excluding rest breaks; working time with several employers is added together (section 2(1) ArbZG). It may not exceed 8 hours per working day. It may be extended to 10 hours only if an average of 8 hours per working day is not exceeded within six calendar months or 24 weeks (section 3 ArbZG).

Working days (Werktage) are all calendar days that are not Sundays or public holidays (as expressly stated in section 3(2) Federal Leave Act, BUrlG), so Saturday is included. Mathematically, this results in 48 hours per week (6 × 8 hours) on average and at most 60 hours in individual weeks (6 × 10 hours). The Working Hours Act sets no separate weekly limit.

Breaks: 30 or 45 minutes

Work must be interrupted by rest breaks fixed in advance: at least 30 minutes for more than 6 and up to 9 hours of work, at least 45 minutes for more than 9 hours (section 4 ArbZG).

• The break may be split into periods of at least 15 minutes each (section 4 sentence 2 ArbZG).
• Nobody may work more than 6 hours in a row without a rest break (section 4 sentence 3 ArbZG).
• Breaks do not count as working time (section 2(1) ArbZG) – with an exception for underground mining.
• Exactly 6 hours of work do not yet require a break under the Act; 6 hours and 1 minute do.

11 hours of rest between two working days

After the end of daily working time, employees must have an uninterrupted rest period of at least 11 hours (section 5(1) ArbZG).

Example: if you finish work at 10 pm, you may start again at 9 am the next day at the earliest.

In hospitals and care facilities, restaurants and hotels, transport companies, broadcasting, agriculture and animal husbandry, the rest period may be shortened by up to one hour if each reduction is offset within a calendar month or four weeks by a rest period of at least 12 hours (section 5(2) ArbZG). Collective agreements may allow further deviations (section 7 ArbZG).

Night work, Sundays and public holidays

• Night time is the period from 11 pm to 6 am, in bakeries and confectioneries from 10 pm to 5 am. Night work is any work that covers more than two hours of night time (section 2(3) and (4) ArbZG).
• Night workers may work 8 hours per working day; up to 10 hours only if the average stays at 8 hours within one calendar month or four weeks (section 6(2) ArbZG).
• On Sundays and public holidays, employees may not be employed from midnight to midnight (section 9(1) ArbZG); exceptions apply to emergency services, hospitals, restaurants and transport companies, among others (section 10 ArbZG).
• At least 15 Sundays a year must remain work-free (section 11(1) ArbZG).
• Anyone who works on a Sunday gets a compensatory rest day within two weeks; after working on a public holiday falling on a weekday, within eight weeks (section 11(3) ArbZG).

Recording working time

Under the Working Hours Act, the employer must record any working time beyond 8 hours per working day and keep the records for at least two years (section 16(2) ArbZG).

Beyond that, the Federal Labour Court has ruled that employers are obliged under section 3(2) no. 1 Occupational Safety and Health Act to record the start and end of their employees' daily working time (decision of 13 September 2022, 1 ABR 22/21).

Who the Act does not cover

The Act does not apply to executive employees within the meaning of the Works Constitution Act and chief physicians, heads of public agencies, employees who live in a shared household with the persons entrusted to them and care for them, and the liturgical sphere of the churches (section 18(1) ArbZG). Seafarers are covered by the Maritime Labour Act (section 18(3) ArbZG).

Collective agreements, or works and service agreements based on them, may deviate within certain limits, for example by setting a different averaging period (section 7 ArbZG). So check your collective agreement as well.

Frequently asked questions