Längere tägliche Arbeitszeit beantragen

Under certain conditions, as an employer you can have longer daily working hours approved for employees in your company.

Under certain conditions, as an employer you can obtain an exceptional permit for longer daily working hours for employees in your company.

You must submit an application for this.

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 obtain 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 health and safety reasons, daily working hours of more than 12 hours are generally not permitted for continuous shift operations as well as for seasonal and campaign operations.

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

They are not entitled to an exemption permit.

For all companies:

• 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 (in particular with regard to mental stress caused by longer working hours)
• Statement from the company doctor
• Statement from the works council (if available)
• Statement from the occupational safety specialist

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:

• Information on the nature and severity of the work
• Organization of working hours
• Distance between place of work and place of residence
• Duration of the rest period at the place of residence

Additionally for seasonal and campaign companies:

• Information on the season or campaign
• Organization of working hours
• Period in which working hours are reduced

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

for continuous shift operation

• if additional shifts off 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

• if the place of work is far away from the employees' place of residence and the employees are guaranteed a correspondingly longer rest period at their place of residence for the extended working time on the construction or assembly site.

For your seasonal or campaign business

• if there is an exceptional workload that cannot be absorbed by other organizational measures.

You can apply in writing for authorization to deviate from the daily working hours. To do so, follow the steps below:

• You submit an informal application.
• You send this to the State Office for Consumer Protection, including the necessary documents.
• If the documents or information required for processing are incomplete, you will be contacted by the responsible office.
• The State Office for Consumer Protection will check the application.
• Once the official review has been completed, you will receive a notice of approval or a notice of rejection.
• The notification of fees will usually be sent to you later.

The decision of the responsible occupational health and safety authority is made at its own discretion.

This decision involves weighing up the interests of protecting the health and safety of employees against the employer's operational interests.

• Deviation from working time regulations Authorization
• Deviating from the regulations on working hours, a higher daily working time is possible for
  • continuous shift operations
  • construction and assembly sites
  • Seasonal and campaign operations
• A permit must be applied for, which is only issued under certain conditions
• Permit is limited in time
• Responsible: local authority responsible for occupational health and safety

Please contact the State Office for Consumer Protection.