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Time and attendance recording is set to play an increasingly important role in Germany. The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-55/18) of 14 May 2019 obliges employers to use a system for recording working hours. The German legislature has yet to set out the specific details of this obligation.
Many employers already use various systems for recording working hours. One of the most modern systems is probably fingerprint-based time recording. The Berlin Labour Court had to rule on a case concerning this (29 Ca 5451/19) and found that employees cannot be forced to record their working hours using fingerprints. Fingerprints constitute biometric data and may only be processed by the employer under strict conditions, e.g. if this is “necessary” or if the employees give their voluntary consent. The Berlin Labour Court ruled that the use of fingerprints for time recording is not “necessary” because other, less intrusive methods are available. Therefore, the employer may only record working hours via fingerprint if employees give their voluntary consent.
Read the Danish article on the website of the German-Danish Chamber of Commerce:
Note: This language version has been produced using AI-assisted translation. If you notice anything that could be improved, we would be pleased to receive your feedback.