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How Bavaria plans to shake up German working time rules

The Bavarian state government wants to make rules on rest and maximum working hours more flexible.

Published: 17 September 2019 11:26 CEST
How Bavaria plans to shake up German working time rules
Should work time be more flexible? Photo: DPA

The government, led by a coalition of the Christian Democrats’ sister party the CSU, and the Freie Wähler (Free Voters), believes current regulations are outdated.

The laws allow for an employee in Germany to work eight hours a day, which can be extended to a maximum of 10 hours in some circumstances.

The Bavarian plan, which will be put forward to the Bundesrat – Germany's upper house of parliament – envisages relaxing these rules, including the compulsory uninterrupted rest period of 11 hours between two working days. 

According to the government, which is led by the CSU's Markus Söder, many employees in the southern state want this change in order to improve the work and family life balance.

It would mean employees could, for example, take a break in the afternoon and work their hours late in the evening, before starting the next day as usual. It’s particularly aimed at parents who may have to pick up or look after children in the middle of the day. 

“Modern communication technology increasingly offers freedom for working independent of time and place, and opens up a higher degree of flexibility for companies and employees,” the cabinet said in a statement on Monday.

Making working hours more flexible in Germany has been a topic debated over the past few years, as the workforce changes and digitalization continues.

READ ALSO: 100 years later, Germany calls the eight-hour working day into question

However, the Social Democrats slammed the Bavarian initiative, raising concerns that softening the rules could allow employees to become exploited.

The Bundesrat is the upper house of parliament and consists of representatives of the German states. Laws concerning state affairs or the constitution must be approved by it before they come into force.

What are the rules on working time in Germany?

The Working Time Act stipulates the number of hours a person can work in a regular working day. In Germany, an employee can work eight hours a day, Monday to Saturday, for a maximum of 48 hours per week.

An employee can work up to 10 hours a day if the average number of hours per day does not exceed eight over 24 weeks. To extend beyond this requires specific agreements and approval by the relevant local authority.

Workers are also required to have an uninterrupted rest period of at least 11 hours after the end of their daily working time.

When it comes to breaks, the law also specifies that employees must receive a 30-minute break when working between six and nine hours.

Working more than nine hours a day requires at least a 45-minute break. Break times are decided by the employer, unless another way of distributing breaks has been decided through a collective bargaining agreement.

EXPLAINED: Who are the foreign workers coming to Germany?

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EXPLAINED: How do you close down a freelance business in Germany?

Leaving the country? Got a steady job offer you can’t say no to? Winding down your self-employment activities in Germany still requires taking a few bureaucratic steps.

Published: 15 May 2024 09:07 CEST
Updated: 15 May 2024 10:57 CEST
EXPLAINED: How do you close down a freelance business in Germany?

Striking out on your own as self-employed is one of the scariest – and potentially most rewarding things – you can do. In Germany, it also comes with its own set of rules around tax and social insurance.

But there are times when – for whatever reason – it may be time to move on.

Whether it’s because you have an exciting new opportunity or things haven’t quite worked out the way you hoped due to economic pressures – winding down self-employment the right way is crucial to avoid gaps in your health and social insurance coverage in Germany.

The steps you have to take are also a bit different depending on if you are new self-employed (Freiberufler) or have a trade licence (Gewerbe) – with some steps not being necessary for new self-employed.

Trade licences are automatically cancelled if the licenced person dies or the company ceases to have financial assets.

Resigning the trade licence or declaring it dormant

New self-employed people like writers or speakers don’t need to go through this step, as they don’t need a trade licence.

Those who have a trade licence will need to contact their competent local authority and resign it, or declare it dormant (withdrawing the licence). If you’re only winding down temporarily, declaring your trade licence dormant instead of de-registering completely may save you a few headaches later.

You may have to do this in person at your local trade office – or Gewerbeamt – depending on whether your local authority allows online de-registration or not. You’ll need to bring your official ID, trade licence, confirmation of registration and possibly an extract from the trade register. Fees are dependent on your local authority and can range from being free to €25.

You can declare the date you intend to resign the licence – which can be in the future. To ensure no gaps in your social insurance protections, including health insurance, set this date for the day before whatever comes next. For example, if you’re starting a new job on January 1st set the date for your trade licence to expire as December 31st.

The trade office will typically notify your local tax office, so you won’t need to do this yourself.

Notifying your tax office

If you’ve had to resign your trade licence, you can skip this step as your trade office will do it for you. If you’re a Freiberufler without a trade licence you need to resign, you’ll have to notify your local Finanzamt, or tax office, yourself.

Luckily, this is a pretty easy step.

First, you need to decide whether you’re ceasing operations completely or wanting to continue them part-time. If you’re ceasing completely, you’ll end up surrendering your self-employed tax number.

You don’t have to do this though. If you think you may still carry on some self-employed business as a side gig, you can inform the tax office that you intend to do so and keep your number.

At that point, the tax office should treat you as a Kleinunternehmer – or a small business making less than €22,000 a year. Having this status means that you will not need to pre-pay taxes or charge VAT on your invoices for freelance side projects.

If you derive any income from your side gig in the future though, you’ll still have to file a tax return.

READ ALSO: Can I have a freelance side gig as an employee in Germany?

Notifying your health insurance

While different private plans in Germany may have different notification requirements, if you have public health insurance in Germany, you should notify them that you’re winding up your self-employed business. Specifically, advise them exactly what date you’re wrapping up.

Again, this should be right before you start your new job or leave the country, to ensure no gaps in your coverage.

If ending your self-employment in Germany, take care to ensure that there’s no gaps in your health insurance coverage, by giving the right date for when you’re ceasing activity. You don’t want to be caught without coverage. Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash

If you are in an artistic profession and thus pay pension, health, and nursing insurance through the Artist Social Insurance Fund (KSK), you should also advise them as well. If you’re leaving self-employment completely, you can typically give notice to KSK as to when it’s ending.

If you’re not, and intend to still make money freelancing as a side gig, they should know this as well. In this event, you’ll no longer pay health or care insurance through KSK, as this is covered through your main job.

You may need to continue to pay pension contributions through KSK based on the amount of money you still make from self-employed activities — depending on how much of them you continue.

KSK: How creative freelancers can pay less for German health insurance

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