Wandelwerker - Der erste deutsche Arbeitsschutz Podcast · WandelWerker Consulting GmbH

#417 Höchstarbeitszeiten: Was ist zeitgemäß?

·38 min·3 clips

Patrick Aligbe discloses that the majority of Germany's work safety regulations actually come from EU law, not German lawmakers.

1. Wandelwerker Podcast episode 417 discusses maximum working hours law with Patrick Aligbe, a specialist in occupational safety law at BG Prävent. 2. Aligbe is a legal expert at BG Prävent, a GmbH prevention service owned by employers' liability insurance carriers, and a lecturer in medical law at the DHBW campus in Ravensburg. 3. The episode's central question is whether Germany's current maximum working hours framework — primarily the eight-hour day with extension options — is still fit for purpose in an era of mobile working and flexible family schedules. 4. Aligbe opens with a historical argument: the eight-hour day, holiday entitlements, and rest periods were fought for against employers who could previously demand unlimited working hours, and this protective function must not be forgotten when discussing liberalisation. 5. The scientific basis for the eight-hour limit came from occupational science and occupational medicine, and the daily norm was designed to be health-protective rather than arbitrary. 6. Under German law, the principle is eight working hours per day, with a permitted extension to ten hours provided the average is balanced back to eight within six calendar months or 24 weeks. 7. Aligbe acknowledges that in practice, balancing periods are often ignored: employers track hours to show they fit the rule on paper without actually ensuring the required equalisation occurs. 8. EU Working Time Directive Article 3 requires only that workers receive at least 11 consecutive hours of rest within each 24-hour period; combined with mandatory German break requirements, this yields a computed ceiling of 12 hours and 15 minutes per working day under European law. 9. European law does not recognise the daily maximum working hours concept; it instead sets a 48-hour weekly average over a reference period, and counts the week as seven days, not five. 10. Paragraph 7 of the German Working Time Act (ArbZG) permits deviation from standard limits via collective agreements, primarily used in hospitals where long shifts are justified by 'Bereitschaftsdienst' (standby duty) provisions. 11. Aligbe questions whether the standby-duty justification still fits reality in German hospitals: station doctors are frequently interrupted and never enter the designated rest rooms, meaning the factual basis for the legal exception is often absent. 12. He notes that German doctors are emigrating to Nordic countries where the same legal framework exists on paper but is more rigorously observed, and where staffing is arranged so that extreme hours are not needed. 13. For agriculture, Aligbe clarifies that self-employed farmers are not covered by the Working Time Act and can work as long as they choose; employees in agriculture are subject to the standard rules with limited exceptions. 14. The host raises the scenario of a parent who would prefer to work school hours and then return to work at 10 pm; Aligbe notes this is possible in principle but requires careful attention to the 11-hour rest period — a late email sent at 11 pm would restart the clock and prevent return to work before 10 am. 15. Aligbe argues that the real dilemma mirrors remote work: workers want total freedom, but without limits the employer can demand total availability, and the law has not kept pace with the reality of home office technology. 16. He notes a secondary problem: Germany's screen work guidelines date from the 1990s and do not account for personal laptops and home monitors that now constitute most knowledge work environments. 17. On Sundays, Aligbe defends the current protection: Sunday is currently the only legally guaranteed interruption to the working week in German law, and if it were abolished a different compulsory weekly rest day would need to be substituted. 18. His reform position is to retain and even harden the balancing mechanism — potentially allow up to 12 or 13 hours per day in exchange for mandatory compensatory rest — while relaxing the block structure to allow split working days for family flexibility. 19. Throughout, the episode is a structured interview with detailed legal references (§3 ArbZG, §7 ArbZG, EU Working Time Directive Article 3) and practical examples. 20. HR professionals, occupational safety officers, works council members, and labour lawyers will find the detail useful; general listeners without interest in German employment law will find it dry.

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