Längere tägliche Arbeitszeit beantragen

As an employer, you can apply for authorization for longer daily working hours for employees in your company under certain conditions.

• To do so, you must submit an informal application.

A deviation from the regulations on working hours is possible for

• continuous shift operations
• construction and assembly sites
• Seasonal and campaign operations.

For continuous shift operations, you may be granted longer daily working hours in order to take additional shifts off.

For seasonal and campaign operations, you may be granted longer daily working hours for the duration of the season or campaign. The increase in working hours will be compensated by a corresponding reduction at other times.

For construction and assembly sites, longer daily working hours in excess of 8 hours may be approved without special conditions.

For health protection reasons, daily working hours of more than 12 hours are generally not permitted.

You can also apply for further exemptions for activities in the special public interest or for offshore activities.

You are not entitled to a permit.

The application for deviating working hours must be justified and submitted to the locally responsible district government.

For all companies:

• Reasons why 12-hour shifts are required
• Details of the activity
• Number of employees for whom a permit is to be issued
• Contact person in the company with contact details
• Risk assessment (especially with regard to mental stress caused by longer working hours)
• Statement from the company doctor on the effects of 12-hour shifts in relation to the workplace and the planned activities
• Statement from the works council (if available)

Additionally for continuous shift operations:

• Duty/shift schedules showing that the extension of working hours will result in additional shifts off
• Schedules for day and night shifts, showing in particular the opportunities for breaks

Additionally for construction and assembly sites:

• Risk assessment supplemented by information on the nature and severity of the work, in particular due to strain when lifting and carrying as well as forced postures and one-sided movements; noise exposure at the workplace
• Organization of working hours
• Distance between place of work and place of residence
• Length of rest period at home (including overnight accommodation)

Additionally for seasonal and campaign operations:

• Risk assessment supplemented by information on the nature and severity of the work, in particular due to strain when lifting and carrying as well as forced postures and one-sided movements
• Information on the season or campaign
• Organization of working hours with shift schedules
• Period in which working time is compensated by a reduction in working hours

You can apply to extend the daily working hours of your employees under the following conditions:

• For continuous shift operation, if additional free shifts are achieved. Additional shifts off are deemed to exist if the extension of working hours means that the employees concerned have more consecutive days off than before.
• For construction and assembly sites; particularly relevant if the place of work is far away from the employees' place of residence and they are guaranteed a correspondingly longer rest period at their place of residence for the extended working time at the construction or assembly site.
• For your seasonal or campaign operation, if there is an exceptional workload for the particular season that cannot be absorbed by other organizational measures.

You can only apply for approval if you are an employer.

You can apply in writing for longer working hours that deviate from the Working Hours Act. The following steps must be taken:

• You submit an informal application
• You send this to the locally responsible district government, including the above-mentioned "Required documents".
• If the documents or information required for processing are incomplete, you will be contacted by the processing department.
• Once the official review has been completed, you will receive a notice of approval or a notice of rejection.
• The locally responsible district government will send you the notification by e-mail or post.
• The notification of fees will usually be sent to you together with the decision.

The decision of the responsible district government is made at its own discretion.

As part of this decision, a balance is struck between the interests of protecting the health and safety of your employees and the operational interests of the employer.

The following information is available:

• The organization of night and shift work is regulated in the Working Hours Act.

If there are other reasons, these will be examined and longer working hours approved if necessary.

If you have submitted an application, extended working hours are only permitted once you have received approval. Retroactive approval cannot be granted.

Deviation from working time regulations Authorization

By way of derogation from the regulations on working hours, a higher daily working time is permitted for

• continuous shift operations
• construction and assembly sites
• seasonal and campaign operations

is possible.

A permit must be applied for, which is only granted under certain conditions.

The permit is limited in time.

If there are other reasons, these will be examined and longer working hours may be approved.

Responsible: District government. The district government in whose supervisory district the company you work for is located is always responsible.