Working Time Records

Asking a Lawyer

Every page on this site says it is not legal advice. This one is about how to get some efficiently, because a badly framed question produces an expensive general answer and a well framed one produces a usable specific answer. When comparing legal claims with vendor-side implementation language, it can also help to review how employees can tell if they are being monitored.

Reviewed August 9, 2026.

What is worth paying for

Classification. Is this person a senior executive within the exemption? Fact-specific, decided against the details of a role, and the exposure runs backwards over the whole period if you get it wrong. This is the highest-value question in the subject. For broader legal or policy context, see Capterra.

Boundary rules for mobile work. Travel from home, waiting, standby — each has case law and each has money attached.

A works agreement. Where a works council exists, the document is a legal instrument and drafting it is what lawyers are for.

And what to do about a historical gap. No records since 2022 is a real position with real options, and it is not one to work out from published summaries.

What wastes an hour

"Are we required to record working time?" The answer is yes and it is free. You are paying for a summary you already have.

"When will the reform pass?" Nobody knows, and a lawyer will tell you that at their hourly rate.

And "which system should we buy?" Not a legal question. A lawyer can tell you what a compliant record contains; whether a product suits your operation is yours to decide.

The preparation that halves the bill

Twenty minutes before the meeting.

Write down what you do now. Who records, how, since when, and where the records live. Most of the first meeting otherwise goes on establishing this.

Write down the gap, honestly. Periods with no records, people not covered, and why.

Bring the specific facts for any classification question — the actual role, the actual authority, the actual contract. Not a job title.

And write your questions as questions, three or four, ordered. A conversation without them expands to fill the hour.

What to ask for as output

A written answer, not only a conversation. You will need to act on it months later and possibly show it to somebody.

The reasoning, briefly. Not for its own sake — so you can tell whether a future change of facts changes the answer.

And what would change it. A classification opinion valid for a role as it stands now is worth knowing about as the role evolves.

When you do not need one

Being fair, because a page recommending advice can overshoot.

A small employer with regular hours, everybody recorded, no works council and no borderline roles does not need an opinion to start recording. The implementation is a page and the duty is not ambiguous.

Get advice when there is a specific question with a specific exposure, which for many employers is never, and for some is urgent.

The short version