Working hours in car repair shops: what applies to technicians and trainees

The limits for technicians

For adults, the general rules of the Working Hours Act apply. The motor vehicle trade has no exceptions of its own there, not for the rest period either. A collective agreement of the motor vehicle trade can set weekly hours and premiums; if one applies to your business, it takes precedence within the statutory limits.

Trainees: vocational school, five-day week, Saturday

Motor vehicle repair workshops are expressly on the list of businesses in which young people may work on Saturdays (section 16(2) no. 11 JArbSchG). At least two Saturdays a month should stay free, though, and for each Saturday the trainee gets a free day in the same week on which there is no vocational school (section 16(3) JArbSchG). More than five working days a week are not allowed (section 15 JArbSchG).

Vocational school counts too. Before lessons that start before 9 am, the business may not employ young people; this also applies to over-18s who are still required to attend vocational school. A school day with more than five lessons counts once a week as the average daily working time, and no more work is allowed on that day afterwards (section 9 JArbSchG).

Labour units are not working time

The customer pays labour units according to manufacturer specifications; the work is done in hours. For maximum hours, breaks and rest periods, only the actual time from the start to the end of work without breaks counts (section 2(1) ArbZG). Setting up, fetching parts, queries and waiting are missing from the job time but are part of working time.

Anyone who records time only via jobs therefore underestimates working time, and exceeding the ten-hour limit goes unnoticed. Attendance and job time belong in two separate columns.

Who has to keep records in the workshop

Car repair businesses are not on the list of industries in section 2a SchwarzArbG. The strict duty under section 17 MiLoG to record the start, end and duration within seven calendar days and keep it for two years therefore applies to mini-jobbers, for example the temp in vehicle preparation.

For everyone else: working time beyond eight hours per working day has to be recorded and kept for two years under section 16(2) ArbZG. And since the Federal Labour Court's order of 13 September 2022, employers have to record working time in principle, without a prescribed form.

Attendance and jobs in one system

In MetronHR technicians clock in at the workshop terminal with an NFC card, which works with oily hands too, or via the app. The time is in the system to the minute, without rounding. Times can be assigned to projects in every plan, so that next to attendance it becomes visible how much time went into jobs.

In the roster of the Professional plan, MetronHR checks the time window, the five-day week and Saturday for young people, and the configured rest period and the daily and weekly limit for everyone. At the end of the month, hours per person are in the monthly Excel overview and in the payroll file for DATEV.