Minus hours: Rights and obligations for employees and employers

Minus hours occur when the employee works less than the weekly working hours agreed in the employment contract. The advantages of minus hours are increased flexibility for both employers and employees. Here is a simple example:

A weekly working time of 40 hours has been agreed between the employer and employee. However, the employee actually only works 37 hours in one week. This results in 3 minus hours in this week.

Other common terms are undertime or reduced hours. In order to record these, however, a working time account must be available. If this is not the case, the hours should urgently be made up to maintain the basis of trust.

Common causes of minus hours are

• Excessive breaks
• Starting work late or finishing work early
• Private errands during working hours
• Unbalanced work schedules by the employer

Time and again, employers try to record minus hours even for contractually or legally stipulated absences and thus force employees to work more hours. However, there are cases in which the employer is prohibited from recording minus hours.

• This is the case, for example, if an employee is unable to work due to illness. In this case, the Continued Remuneration Act expressly stipulates that the employee must not suffer any disadvantages as a result of the illness, in particular in the form of undertime.
• The Continued Remuneration Act also applies on public holidays. Accordingly, this does not constitute a reduction in working hours in this case either.
• The same applies to recreational leave. The entitlement to leave is based on the Federal Leave Act. Here too, this time may not be recorded as undertime.

It is therefore not permissible to make up the missed working hours because they have been recorded as minus hours. If you notice a corresponding minus hours entry, you should first talk to your employer. This is often simply a case of an inadvertent booking error.

However, if it turns out that the time was deliberately recorded as reduced hours, you should seek legal advice promptly.

There is no general answer to this question. It always depends on the specific individual case. The decisive factor is who has assumed responsibility for the training. This can either be the responsibility of the employer, the employee or, in the case of a training agreement, a shared responsibility.

If the employer has ordered further training, for example because it is necessary for certification or to ensure quality standards, the employer may not enter any minus hours for you.

However, if the employee wishes to undertake further training on their own responsibility, it depends on whether they are entitled to educational leave. If the entitlement exists, no undertime may be recorded during the training leave. If this entitlement does not exist, the employer can generally record fewer hours.

If an agreement has been reached between the two parties on further training, the regulation on working hours set out in this agreement shall apply.

Many employees are also familiar with this situation. If there is little to do due to delivery bottlenecks or a temporarily low order situation, the employer sends some of its employees home.

In many cases, these lost working hours are then recorded as reduced hours in the working time account or on the timesheet. However, this is not legal. The employer bears the risk of capacity utilization for the company. If there is temporarily not enough work available, this must not be at the expense of the individual employees. The employer must therefore always pay such lost working hours in full.

The only exception is if the employment contract expressly stipulates that there may be fluctuations in weekly working hours and that these are compensated for via a working time account. This is particularly the case for jobs that are subject to seasonal fluctuations.

If the possibility of minus hours is not provided for in the employment contract, falling short of the agreed weekly working hours constitutes a breach of duty on the part of the person responsible for the reduced hours. Minus hours are therefore not actually permitted. They can therefore also lead to sanctions such as warnings or salary cuts. There is no legal regulation on this.

This only applies if the employment or collective agreement contains corresponding provisions on fluctuations in working hours or minus hours. If these regulations do not provide for upper limits, it depends, as is so often the case, on the specific individual case. The working conditions in an overall view and the special features of the respective industry are decisive. It is also possible to increase the number of permissible reduced hours, for example because the employee has to ensure childcare during daycare and school closures. However, it should always be borne in mind that the working time account must be balanced out again in the long term. The absences must therefore be made up sooner or later.

Yes, this is possible under certain circumstances. However, the decisive factor is who is responsible for the reduced hours. If they were ordered by the employer, the employer may not reduce the salary. If they are the responsibility of the employee, a salary reduction is generally possible. However, certain limits must also be observed here. For example, the salary may not be reduced beyond the existing garnishment-free limit.

However, if the possibility of minus hours is provided for in the employment contract, the hurdles to a salary reduction are somewhat higher. A contractual regulation on reduced hours can also be supplemented by a subsequent agreement, which can also be concluded verbally.

If such a regulation exists, the employee must first be given the opportunity to make up for missed time.

In addition, the employer must take into account any savings resulting from the non-employment, if any.

If your salary has been unlawfully reduced, you should lose no time in taking action. Many employment contracts contain relatively short preclusive periods, according to which the employee only has a few months to claim unpaid wages.

First of all, the claims should be asserted against the employer. If this is done with appropriate justification, in some cases the outstanding wage claim will be paid immediately.

If the employer continues to be stubborn, the only solution is to go to the labor court. There you can sue for the withheld salary to which you are entitled. However, it should be noted that each party must bear their own costs in the first instance before the labor court. It is therefore advisable to take out legal expenses insurance that also covers employment law. This is because in these cases, legal expenses insurance covers all costs incurred for legal advice, the lawyer's extrajudicial work and the filing of a lawsuit, with the exception of any agreed excess.

Regardless of whether the employment relationship is terminated due to the passage of time, dismissal or a termination agreement. The treatment of minus hours always depends on the existing agreements. A dispute often arises between the employer and the departing employee.

The employer may not always offset the missed working time against the last salary.

The decisive factor is who is responsible for the reduced hours, whether a working time account exists and what has been contractually agreed. A salary deduction is only possible in cases where the employee is responsible for the missed working hours.