Working-time records: what to record and how long to keep them

Section 32 of the Working Hours Act obliges the employer to record the hours worked and the compensation paid for them, employee by employee. The section offers two alternative ways to enter the hours, requires the records to be kept until the limitation period for claims has expired, and gives the employee, the staff representative and the occupational safety and health authority the right to see the entries. The employer chooses the tool: paper, a spreadsheet and a system meet the same obligation when the content and the retention are in order.

For the source data, download an editable timesheet and agree on payroll data responsibilities with payroll.

Section 32 of the Working Hours Act gives two ways to record

Choose a recording method under section 32 that fits the situation. It must consistently produce the required information. Flexible working arrangements have a separate procedure described below.

The recording methods differ in how hours and compensation are itemised in the completed records. They do not dictate which buttons employees use or when they enter their day. A system can produce the required breakdown from the same time entries using the applicable rules.

What is recorded for each employee

The records are kept at the level of the person, not the team or the cost centre. One employee’s rows must show:

• the hours worked, broken down according to the chosen recording method;
• additional-work, overtime, emergency-work and Sunday-work hours separately;
• the compensation or increased portions paid for those hours;
• the estimated amount of additional work, overtime and Sunday work per month, if the compensation is paid as a separate monthly amount under section 38 (possible in supervisory duties and under flexible working hours);
• the entries saved into the working-time bank and how they have been taken as time off, if a working-time bank is in use.

The entry for the compensation belongs in the records even when the compensation is given as time off. Under section 21 of the Working Hours Act, the pay for additional work or overtime and the increased portion for Sunday work may be agreed to be exchanged for corresponding time off during the employee’s regular working hours. The time off must be given within six months of the work being done unless otherwise agreed, so the records have to show what was given for the hours and when.

The law sets the content of the records, not the tool

Section 32 of the Working Hours Act names the entries and the retention period. The practical requirements follow from what the section demands of the records: the data has to be employee-specific, a copy has to be available on request, an individual employee has to be given a written statement of the entries concerning them, and the data has to survive the whole retention period. The retention obligation applies to the data, so when the system changes, the entries have to be migrated or archived in readable form.

The law uses the name shift roster; in everyday speech people say shift schedule. Under section 30 it must show when the employee’s regular working hours start and end and the times of the breaks under section 24, and it must be brought to the employees’ knowledge no later than one week before the period begins.

Note. The employer must keep the shift rosters at least until the limitation period laid down in section 40 has expired, unless the information appears in the working-time records (section 30). Keeping planned and actual working time in the same records therefore removes the need for a separate archive.

More than that has to be kept available: section 43 of the Working Hours Act requires that the Act, the provisions and exemption permits issued under it, the agreements generally applied at the workplace, and the working-time adjustment plan and the shift roster in use are accessible to the employees.

Who may see the records

An employee has the right, on request, to a written statement of the entries concerning them in the shift rosters and the working-time records.

On request, the employer must supply the occupational safety and health authority and the shop steward, the elected representative or another representative acting for the employee with a copy of the working-time records, of the agreements made under sections 11, 13 and 36, of the working-time adjustment plan under section 29 and of the shift roster under section 30. Compliance with the Working Hours Act is supervised by the occupational safety and health authority (section 47), so the request typically comes as part of an inspection and covers the chosen period in full.

Failing to keep the records is a working hours offence under Chapter 47, section 2 of the Criminal Code, if the employer or the employer’s representative, intentionally or through gross negligence and to the employee’s detriment, fails to keep the working-time records, keeps them incorrectly, alters, hides or destroys them, or makes them impossible to read. The Working Hours Act’s own penalty provision (section 44) covers maximum working hours, emergency work, rest periods and drawing up the shift roster.

The retention period follows the limitation period

The employer must keep the working-time records until the limitation period laid down in sections 40 and 41 has expired. Working-time records are therefore kept for as long as the employee can claim what is owed: while the employment continues, two years from the end of the calendar year during which the right to the compensation arose, and after the employment has ended, two years from that end (section 40).

Two other retention periods may apply to the same work. A motor vehicle driver’s personal driving logs have to be kept for one year under section 31. If the same printout also serves as a voucher for payroll, Chapter 2, section 10 of the Accounting Act requires the vouchers of a financial period to be kept for at least six years from the end of the year in which the financial period ended. The longer period governs the material it applies to.

A working-time bank and flexible working hours change how you record

A working-time bank is agreed between the employer and the shop steward, the elected representative, another representative of the employees or the staff together, and the agreement is made in writing (section 14). With the employee’s consent, additional-work and overtime hours, hours accrued under flexitime up to 60 hours during a four-month monitoring period, and monetary benefits after they have been converted into time may be transferred into the bank. The accrual may grow by no more than 180 hours during a calendar year, and the total accrual may correspond to no more than six months of working time. The recording obligation is in section 32: the employer keeps a record of the saved entries and of how they have been taken as time off.

Under flexible working hours, recording starts with the employee. For each pay period, the employee gives the employer a list of the hours worked during regular working hours, showing the weekly working time and the weekly rest. The employer enters the information reported by the employee in the working-time records instead of applying section 32(1). An agreement on flexible working hours is made in writing (section 13), and it replaces the shift roster when it shows the principles applied to the placement of working time (section 30).

Example: one employee’s working week

The employee follows general working hours (section 5): regular working hours are at most eight hours a day and 40 hours a week. A weekly working time of 37.5 hours has been agreed in the employment contract, and the shift roster shows 7.5 hours from Monday to Friday. On Sunday they work five hours with their consent.

The figures come from section 16. Daily overtime is work exceeding eight hours a day: 1.0 hour on Tuesday and 2.0 hours on Friday. Because the agreed weekly working time is shorter than 40 hours, additional work is work done beyond the regular working hours entered in the shift roster that is not overtime – on these days the half hour between 7.5 hours and 8.0 hours. Thursday’s six hours remain regular working hours, because less work was done than planned. Sunday’s five hours are counted last: the hours that fall outside daily overtime (3.0 hours) add up to 42.0 hours over the week, so the 3.0 hours up to the 40-hour limit are additional work and the 2.0 hours exceeding the limit are weekly overtime.

Sunday’s hours appear in two columns. Sunday work must be paid at a rate increased by 100 per cent, and if the work is overtime at the same time, overtime compensation is paid for it as well, calculated on the employee’s unincreased pay (section 20). In the records, the same hour is therefore both Sunday work and additional work or overtime.

The increase percentages come from section 20: daily overtime is paid at a rate increased by 50 per cent for the first two hours and by 100 per cent for the hours after them, weekly overtime at a rate increased by 50 per cent, and additional work at least as compensation corresponding to the pay for the agreed working time. In the example week, neither day’s daily overtime exceeds two hours, so the increase is 50 per cent on both days.

The week’s 45.0 hours tell us something else as well. Maximum working time is calculated under section 18 over a longer period: working time including overtime may average no more than 48 hours a week over a period of four months. A single 45-hour week is therefore possible, and monitoring is done at the level of the period.

A collective agreement may derogate from the provisions of the law

The recording obligation itself is mandatory, but much of what is recorded comes from the collective agreement. Under section 34 of the Working Hours Act, a national collective agreement may agree otherwise on, among other things, regular working hours and their adjustment period, the compensation paid for additional work, overtime and Sunday work, giving that compensation as time off, rest periods and the shift roster. A generally applicable collective agreement is followed in a non-organised company as well. Check at least the overtime threshold, the increase percentages and the length of the adjustment period in your own sector’s agreement before you record hours according to the default rules in the law.

Erasing personal data and the retention obligation are reconciled

The employer must retain legally required records in an employee-specific form. When there is no longer a basis for retention, erase or anonymise the data. Replacing a name or identifier alone does not guarantee anonymity: other details may still identify the person.

Collecting the data also requires informing the staff. If the hours accrue from monitoring carried out by technical means, such as access control, the purpose, introduction and methods of the monitoring fall within the dialogue referred to in the Co-operation Act, under section 21 of the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life. In companies outside the co-operation legislation, the employer gives the employees or their representatives an opportunity to be heard before the decision. After the procedure, the employer defines the purpose and the methods of the monitoring and informs the employees of them.

Checklist

• The recording method is chosen. It provides the information required by section 32 for the working-time arrangement in use.
• The entries are employee-specific. One person’s hours can be produced for one period without compiling them from several sources.
• Overtime, emergency-work and Sunday-work hours stand out as figures of their own alongside the hours worked.
• Compensation or increased portions are recorded. Record the amount and date of time off given as compensation; follow the six-month deadline unless otherwise agreed.
• Agreements under section 38 have a monthly estimate of the amount of additional work, overtime and Sunday work.
• The working-time bank’s entries and how they are taken as time off are recorded; under flexible working hours, the employee’s list for each pay period has been received and recorded.
• Shift rosters survive past the limitation period or the same information appears in the working-time records.
• Retention covers the applicable claim periods (sections 40–41). The starting point is when entitlement arose, not always when work was done. Check the special rules for time-off compensation and employment ending.
• A copy goes out on request to the occupational safety and health authority and the staff representative, and the employee receives a written statement of their own entries.
• Erasure and retention are reconciled. Retention grounds, deadlines and erasure or anonymisation procedures are defined.