Works agreement

What "directly and mandatorily" means

Directly: the rule takes effect on every employment relationship without having to be incorporated into the employment contract. Mandatorily: it cannot be departed from by individual contract to the employees' detriment.

To their advantage it can be. Under the favourability principle, an individually agreed rule more favourable to the person prevails. A works agreement is therefore a floor, not a ceiling.

What belongs in an agreement on time recording

Which data is recorded and which expressly is not. Who may access what, by role and not by person. How long the data is kept and when it is deleted. How corrections are requested, approved and logged. Whether and how evaluations are made, in particular whether evaluations are possible in personalised form or only as a group figure.

Plus the rules on the time account: caps, the balancing period, what happens when the limit is reached and what applies on departure.

• The purpose and the types of data recorded, with an express exclusion of biometric features and continuous location tracking
• Access rights per role, with a list of the evaluations that are permitted
• Retention and deletion, aligned with section 147 AO and section 17 MiLoG
• A procedure for corrections, with logging
• Involvement of the works council in changes to the system

Continuing effect

After expiry or termination, works agreements in matters of enforceable codetermination continue to apply until they are replaced by another arrangement (section 77(6) BetrVG). A terminated agreement on time recording therefore does not disappear, it stays in force.

That is often overlooked and matters in practice: anyone wanting to get rid of an outdated agreement has to negotiate a new one, not merely terminate the old one.