Recording obligation in Austria: What employers really need to document

What is the recording obligation under the Working Time Act?

In Austria, § 26 of the Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, AZG) requires employers to document the working hours of their employees completely and transparently. This rule applies in principle to all employers – regardless of company size, industry or place of work.

The recording obligation is not a formality but a central element of employee protection. It serves to prevent overwork, safeguard rest periods and ensure correct payroll processing. At the same time, it enables the Labour Inspectorate (Arbeitsinspektorat) to monitor compliance with statutory working time provisions.

AZG § 26 para. 1 (in substance): To monitor compliance with working time rules, the employer must keep records of the hours worked at the place of business.

Violations of the recording obligation are administrative offences and are punished with fines (§ 28 AZG).

What must be recorded according to the Working Time Act?

For every employee, the records must show when and for how long they worked:

Mandatory information under AZG § 26

• ✅ Start of daily working time (time of day)
• ✅ End of daily working time (time of day)
• ✅ Duration of working time (hours worked)
• ✅ Rest breaks – for a working day of more than 6 hours, a break of at least 30 minutes is mandatory (§ 11 AZG)

From these details it must also be possible to verify that the daily rest period of at least 11 hours (§ 12 AZG), the maximum working hours (§ 9 AZG: generally 12 hours per day and 60 hours per week) and the compensation of overtime are being observed.

Special rules for certain working time models

The AZG provides for some simplifications and special cases:

• For flexitime: employees may keep the records themselves – the employer must instruct them and check the records regularly (§ 26 para. 2 AZG).
• For employees who largely determine their own working time and place of work or work mainly from home: records of the duration of daily working time are sufficient (§ 26 para. 3 AZG).
• For a fixed working schedule recorded in writing: the employer confirms compliance at least at the end of each pay period and only records deviations on an ongoing basis (§ 26 para. 5a AZG).
• For fixed breaks: records of rest breaks are not required if the start and end of breaks are set by a works agreement or employment contract (or a time frame is specified) and there are no deviations (§ 26 para. 5 AZG).

In addition, employees are entitled once a month to receive their working time records free of charge if they demonstrably request them.

Who is subject to the recording obligation?

The recording obligation applies in principle to all employers in Austria – regardless of how many employees are employed. Even micro-businesses with just a single employee must document working hours.

Which employees are covered by the obligation?

The documentation obligation covers:

• ✅ Full-time employees
• ✅ Part-time employees
• ✅ Marginally employed workers
• ✅ Apprentices (for young people under 18, the Austrian Child and Youth Employment Act applies instead of the AZG, with its own recording obligations)
• ✅ Interns and holiday interns, provided there is an employment relationship
• ✅ Employees working from home or in mobile working arrangements
• ✅ Seasonal workers and temporary staff

Are there any exceptions?

Only a few groups are excluded from the AZG and therefore from the recording obligation, including:

• Senior executives and other employees who have been given significant independent decision-making authority (§ 1 para. 2 AZG)
• Shareholder-managing directors with a controlling influence, who are not employees under labour law at all
• Self-employed persons without employee status

Important: Simply being designated as a "senior executive" is not sufficient. An actual, comprehensive management function must exist.

What penalties are imposed for violations?

The Labour Inspectorate monitors compliance with the recording obligation during company visits. Violations are administrative offences under § 28 AZG: the Labour Inspectorate files a report, and the district administrative authority conducts the proceedings and imposes fines. The amount depends on the statutory range, the seriousness of the violation and any repeat offences.

Important: Another effect is often more expensive than the fine itself. Without records, employees' overtime claims are hard to rebut – and if the hours actually worked cannot be established because records are missing, limitation periods for such claims are suspended.

Practical tip: Records must be kept at the place of business and presented to the Labour Inspectorate on request. If you first have to search for them or put them together retrospectively, an inspection quickly becomes uncomfortable.

How must working hours be recorded?

The Austrian Working Time Act does not prescribe a specific form of recording. However, in its judgment of 14 May 2019 (C-55/18), the Court of Justice of the EU held that member states must require a system for recording working time that meets three requirements:

The three core principles of reliable time tracking

1. Objective: Recording must be based on actual times, not on retrospective estimates or recollections.
2. Reliable: The data must be correct, complete and traceable. Subsequent changes should be identifiable.
3. Accessible: Records must be available for inspection by the authorities, the works council and employees.

Permitted recording methods

In principle, various methods are permitted:

• 📱 Digital time tracking systems (app, software, terminal)
• 🕐 Time clocks (analogue or digital)
• 📝 Handwritten timesheets (filled in promptly)
• 💻 Excel spreadsheets (maintained promptly, with changes traceable where possible)

However, not all methods meet the requirements for objectivity and reliability equally well.

Paper vs. Excel vs. digital time tracking – a compliance comparison

Checklist: How to meet the recording obligation reliably

Use this checklist to review your current time tracking:

✅ Completeness of data

• ☐ The start and end of every work shift are recorded
• ☐ Rest breaks (mandatory for more than 6 hours of work) are documented – unless an exception under § 26 para. 5 AZG applies
• ☐ Overtime is shown separately
• ☐ Weekly working time is visible
• ☐ Rest periods between working days are traceable

✅ Timeliness and objectivity

• ☐ Times are recorded promptly (not retrospectively at the end of the month)
• ☐ Recording is based on actual times, not estimates
• ☐ The system makes retrospective manipulation difficult (or logs changes)

✅ Accessibility

• ☐ Records can be presented during inspections
• ☐ Employees can view their own times or receive them monthly
• ☐ Works council has access to relevant data (if applicable)

✅ Archiving

• ☐ Records are kept for a sufficiently long time – the AZG sets no specific period, but under § 132 of the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code (BAO) books, records and receipts relevant for tax must be kept for seven years
• ☐ A backup system is in place (for digital recording)
• ☐ Data is protected against loss (fire, water damage, data loss)

✅ Data protection

• ☐ Access is regulated on a role-based basis (not everyone can see everything)
• ☐ Data storage is GDPR-compliant
• ☐ Employees have been informed about data processing

What happens during an inspection by the authorities?

The Austrian Labour Inspectorate carries out company visits – also unannounced. The main aspects checked are:

1. Existence of records: Are working hours being documented at all?
2. Completeness: Are all mandatory details included?
3. Timeliness: Are times recorded promptly or retrospectively "tidied up"?
4. Plausibility: Do the documented times match the actual work processes?
5. Compliance with maximum working time: Are the statutory limits being observed?
6. Break rules: Are the prescribed breaks actually being granted?

In the event of ambiguities or irregularities, the Labour Inspectorate may:

• Interview employees
• Inspect documents and request copies
• Demand that the lawful situation be restored
• File a report with the district administrative authority, which can then impose fines

Important: Even before an announced inspection, you must not retrospectively "clean up" records. Documents created or embellished after the fact often come to light during employee interviews or when compared with other records – and make your position considerably worse.

Digital time tracking: the safest path to compliance

Modern digital time tracking systems help you meet the statutory requirements in everyday practice. The key advantages:

Support with compliance

• ✅ Real-time recording: Times are clocked at the actual moment
• ✅ Automatic break calculation: Breaks are applied according to the configured rules
• ✅ Overtime at a glance: Overtime and working time balances are calculated automatically
• ✅ Traceable corrections: Digital records are much harder to manipulate than paper or Excel
• ✅ Automatic backup: Data is stored centrally and will not be lost

Particularly important for mobile teams

When employees work on construction sites, at client premises or from home, mobile time tracking via app is especially practical. Good solutions offer:

• 📱 Time tracking via smartphone (iOS and Android)
• 🌐 NFC clock-in even without signal (clock-ins are transmitted later)
• 🗣️ Multilingual support for international teams (e.g. Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian)
• 📍 Location captured at clock-in (no continuous tracking)
• 🏷️ NFC check-in (e.g. at a tablet terminal – also for employees without their own smartphone)

The advantage: employees can clock in directly on site, the office has an immediate overview and, during inspections, all data can be presented at the touch of a button.

Common mistakes in working time recording

In practice, the following mistakes frequently cause problems during inspections:

❌ Mistake 1: Retrospective completion

Many companies collect timesheets at the end of the month and have employees enter the times retrospectively. Times reconstructed from memory are inaccurate and hard to rely on, as objectivity is lacking.

❌ Mistake 2: Rounding and estimates

"I always work from 8 to 5" – such blanket statements do not satisfy the recording obligation (except for a fixed working schedule recorded in writing, where deviations are recorded). The actual times must be documented.

❌ Mistake 3: Missing break documentation

Breaks must generally be shown. Stating "7.5 hours net" is usually not sufficient – the timing of the break must be identifiable, unless an exception under § 26 para. 5 AZG applies.

❌ Mistake 4: No retention

Retention is often neglected. Older records are needed during inspections and in disputes about overtime – and under § 132 BAO, documents relevant for payroll and tax must be kept for seven years.

❌ Mistake 5: Trust-based working without monitoring

"Our employees work on a trust basis" – this does not exempt employers from the recording obligation. Documentation is required even for flexible working time models.

❌ Mistake 6: Excel without change protection

Excel spreadsheets that can be overwritten at any time are easy to challenge. A change history makes the records considerably more robust.

Conclusion: Compliance is not a matter of chance

The recording obligation under Austrian working time law is not a bureaucratic nuisance but an important instrument of employee protection – and at the same time your protection as an employer in the event of legal disputes.

The good news: with a well-designed system, meeting the statutory requirements is no longer a major burden. Modern digital time tracking solutions take a lot of routine work off your hands and noticeably reduce the administrative workload.

Three key takeaways:

1. The obligation applies to everyone: Whether you have 1 or 100 employees – working hours must be documented.
2. Violations are costly: Fines under § 28 AZG are possible – and without records, overtime claims are hard to defend against.
3. Digital is safer: Modern systems support you in meeting the requirements for objectivity, reliability and accessibility.

Review your current time tracking using the checklist in this article – and close compliance gaps before the authorities find them.