Set-up time
Set-up time is the time for activities preceding or following the actual work: changing clothes, laying out tools, starting up machines, handovers. It is working time in so far as it serves the employer.
As of:September 2026
The criterion: serving the employer
What matters is whether the activity serves the business exclusively or very largely. In its judgment of 26/10/2016 (5 AZR 168/16) the Federal Labour Court held that changing clothes is part of the work that has to be paid where the employer prescribes particular clothing and it has to be put on and taken off at the business.
Under that decision, work clothing is conspicuous where its design lets the person be identified in public with a profession or an industry. Anyone who can put it on at home and wear it inconspicuously to work has no changing time serving the employer.
Changing time also covers the associated journeys within the business, for instance from the locker to the workplace. Where the duration cannot be stated precisely, the court may estimate it under section 287 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
MetronHR works these figures out itself: time accounts, premiums, overtime and the limits of the German Working Hours Act, with every booking.
Pay and the Working Hours Act
Two questions have to be kept apart. In working time law, set-up time that serves the employer counts as working time within the meaning of section 2(1) ArbZG and therefore towards maximum working time.
Whether it has to be paid additionally depends on the employment contract and a collective agreement. A collective rule can pay it as a flat rate or exclude it, as long as the minimum wage is still reached for the total time.
Example: the start of a shift in production
- Prescribed: safety shoes, protective clothing, ear protection, changing only at the business.
- Changing and the journey to the workplace: 8 minutes before and 8 minutes after the shift.
- At 220 working days that is 58.7 hours a year.
- That time counts towards maximum working time and as a rule has to be paid.
Common mistake
Many businesses record the shift from entering the workplace rather than from clocking in at the entrance. Where protective clothing is prescribed, almost 60 hours a year are then missing from the records.
Further reading
- Federal Labour Court, judgment of 26/10/2016, 5 AZR 168/16
- Section 2(1) ArbZG, section 287 ZPO
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
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Working time fraud means deliberately stating working time falsely, for instance by clocking in for absent colleagues or entering hours not worked. It is a serious breach of the duties under the employment contract.
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