What is the EU working time recording requirement?

How it works

The requirement comes from a May 2019 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in a Spanish case, CCOO v Deutsche Bank (C-55/18). The Court held that, to make the rights in the Working Time Directive and the EU Charter effective, Member States must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured.

The Court left the details to Member States, including the form the system must take, with room for the characteristics of each sector and the size of employers. As a result, national rules differ: some countries already expect detailed daily records in digital or tamper-resistant form, while others are still updating national law. Employers need to check the rules in each country where they operate.

In practice a record captures start and finish times, breaks and total hours, including overtime, and should be accurate and hard to change after the fact. Office presence data, such as badge swipes or desk check-ins, can inform the record an employer keeps, but it is not a working time record: it does not capture remote hours, breaks or work done away from the building.

How to measure it

Map the countries you operate in and what each requires for format, retention and access.
Check that records capture remote and hybrid working time, not only office presence.
Test whether records can be changed after the fact, and whether changes are logged.

Examples

A company with offices in Spain and Germany uses a digital system for daily start, finish and break times, and keeps office presence data separately for space planning.
A hybrid employee records working hours the same way on home and office days, rather than relying on badge data for office days.

Common mistakes

Assuming badge data equals working time; it shows building entry and exit, not hours worked or breaks.
Keeping records in editable spreadsheets with no audit trail.
Applying one country's rules to every EU location.
Confusing working time recording with employee monitoring: the obligation is to record hours worked, not to track activity.

How Kadence helps

Kadence is not a working time recording system and does not record hours worked. It records office presence and bookings: check-ins from the apps, the Kadence Agent on the office network, kiosks, badge data or the API, with booking exports that show who booked and who checked in. That presence and booking data can inform the records an employer keeps in its own time-recording or HR systems.

Workplace occupancy · Security

Frequently asked questions

What is the EU time tracking law?

It is the requirement, set by a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling, that Member States make employers record each worker's daily working time with an objective, reliable and accessible system. Each country sets the details, so the exact format and enforcement differ across the EU.

Does the EU working time recording rule apply to remote workers?

The ruling refers to the time worked each day by each worker and makes no exception for remote work. Employers therefore need a way to record hours on remote and hybrid days as well as office days. National rules set the details, so check the requirements in each country.

Is badge data enough for working time recording?

Usually not. Badge data shows when someone entered or left a building, not when they started or stopped working, took breaks or worked from home. It can inform the record an employer keeps in its own time-recording system, but that system must capture daily hours in every place people work.

What must a working time record include?

At minimum it must allow the length of each worker's working day to be measured. In practice, records capture start and finish times, breaks and total hours, including overtime. National laws may add requirements on format, how long records are kept and who can access them.

Employee monitoring vs occupancy data Employee monitoring tracks what individuals do; occupancy data measures how spaces are used. Workplace planning needs only the second.
Office attendance rate The share of employees, or of expected office days, that people actually spend in the office, measured from presence data.
Presence data (sensorless occupancy) The record of who was actually in the building and when, from signals you already have: network, badges and check-ins.
Badge data Access-control swipe records showing who entered a building or floor and when, often used to measure attendance.

Sources

Press release No 61/19: Judgment in Case C-55/18 CCOO v Deutsche Bank SAE, Court of Justice of the European Union

Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed September 30, 2026