Maximum working time in security services: when 12 hours are allowed

The limits without a collective agreement

The Security Services Ordinance regulates instruction, expertise and service instructions, but not working time, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act sets no maximum working hours either. The length of shifts is therefore governed by the Working Hours Act alone, and it has only one exception for the security trade: Sunday, where the work cannot be done on working days (section 10(1) no. 13 ArbZG). There is no special route for the daily maximum, breaks or the rest period.

When twelve hours are allowed

Gatehouse duty, property protection and the control room involve a lot of standby readiness: alert attention without constantly having something to do. It counts as working time in full. A collective agreement may extend daily working time beyond ten hours if standby readiness or stand-by duty regularly falls into it to a significant extent (section 7(1) no. 1 a ArbZG). That is the basis of the 12-hour shift.

Three conditions are attached. Over an average of twelve calendar months, it may not be more than 48 hours a week (section 7(8) ArbZG). After a shift of more than twelve hours, eleven hours of rest follow immediately (section 7(9) ArbZG). And a business without a collective agreement can only adopt such a rule within the scope of the agreement, by works agreement or, without a works council, by written agreement with the individual person (section 7(3) ArbZG).

If the collective agreement even allows extending beyond eight hours without averaging, the written consent of each person is required in addition. It can be withdrawn with six months' notice, and anyone who does not consent may not be disadvantaged (section 7(2a) and (7) ArbZG). You have to keep these consents in a register for two years (section 16(2) ArbZG).

Night duty in property protection

Night time is the period from 11 pm to 6 am. Anyone who normally works nights on rotating shifts or has shifts with more than two hours in that period on at least 48 days a year is a night worker (section 2(3) to (5) ArbZG). In many guarding services that applies to a large share of the guards.

• Without a collective agreement, ten hours at night only if the average within one calendar month or four weeks is eight hours (section 6(2) ArbZG).
• Right to an occupational health check before starting and then every three years, every year from age 50. The employer bears the cost unless it offers the check free of charge through a company doctor (section 6(3) ArbZG).
• Paid days off or a reasonable premium for the night hours, if no collective agreement covers it (section 6(5) ArbZG).

Records with changing sites

The guarding and security trade is listed in section 2a(1) no. 10 SchwarzArbG. Section 17 MiLoG therefore applies: the start, end and duration of daily working time by the end of the seventh calendar day, kept for two years, and to be shown at the place of work if customs asks. Every guard also carries their ID.

Under section 1 of the Minimum Wage Documentation Ordinance, the only exemptions are employees whose regular monthly pay exceeds 4,461 euros gross, or 2,974 euros if it has demonstrably been paid for the last twelve full months, and spouses, registered partners, children and parents of the employer who work in the business.

This gets difficult when the work happens where there is no office: at changing sites, at night, often alone. A sheet that comes back at the end of the month does not meet the seven-day deadline. And with 12-hour shifts, each shift has to be individually provable, or the annual average of 48 hours cannot be shown.

How often customs checks the security trade

In 2025 the Financial Monitoring Unit for Illicit Employment checked 731 employers in the security trade and 15,843 persons. Since 1 January 2026 the minimum wage has been 13.90 euros per hour.

Clocking in on site, planning with qualifications

In MetronHR the guard clocks in on site via the app or at the terminal with an NFC card. The time is in the system to the minute on the same day, without rounding, per person and site, and the time account runs across all sites.

In the roster of the Professional plan you store on an activity which qualification it requires. When rostering, MetronHR suggests only suitable people and reports a conflict if someone without it is assigned. Before publication it also reports when the configured rest period, the daily or weekly limit or the maximum number of consecutive working days is exceeded. Night, Sunday and public holiday hours per person are in the monthly Excel overview and in the payroll file for DATEV at the end of the month.