Traffic light coalition: minimum wage increases, documentation obligation remains

"We will increase the statutory minimum wage to twelve euros per hour in the first year in a one-off adjustment." At least that is what it says in the mid-October 2021 Exploratory paper of the so-called "traffic light coalition", which serves as the basis for the coalition negotiations currently underway to form a new German government. And while the consequences of this decision - if it is then also implemented within the framework of the new government - are already being hotly debated, it is, however, also clear. The new government will not change the documentation requirements for mini-jobs.

These documentation requirements have been included in the new § Section 17 Minimum Wage Act (MiLoG) is laid down. According to this, the employer is obliged to record and document the working hours of employees with marginal employment (mini-jobs). If one brings this requirement in connection with the already repeatedly quoted ECJ ruling on digital time recordingOne thing is obvious: companies must immediately think about how they can map time recording and documentation in a legally compliant way.

Corona crisis in autumn 2021: Still more than 600,000 short-time workers

In addition, the Corona pandemic continues to pose major challenges to companies - also in the area of time recording. According to Estimates of the ifo Institute based on the economic survey, more than 600,000 people were still on short-time work in Germany in September 2021.

However, the following also applies to short-time workers: The employer has a duty to document the working hours worked during short-time work. This obligation also applies to absenteeism and absenteeism. The evidence for the respective calendar month must be submitted by the company to the competent employment office within three months. After the end of the short-time work, an audit is carried out because the short-time work allowance is only paid out by the Federal Employment Agency with reservations.

For this purpose, companies must submit the following data to the Federal Employment Agency for short-time workers:

• • • Hours worked per day
    • Number of short-time working hours for this day
    • Public holidays (remuneration is paid exclusively by the employer)
    • Sick days

Due to the current increase in the number of cases, it must be assumed that companies will have to continue to deal with the issue of short-time work and the associated documentation requirements.

ZEP Clock: Seamless documentation of working hours - regardless of the legal basis

Regardless of whether it is a matter of time recording for mini-jobs or short-time work - or simply documenting working hours in a timely, complete and immediately verifiable manner, the ZEP Clock the technical basis required for this. The solution is based on the provantis solution ZEP - Time recording for projects and is used for project-independent recording of working hours. As a cloud service, ZEP Clock does not require any software to be installed. It can be used via any conventional internet browser, regardless of the operating system, on any internet-capable end device (PC, notebook, tablet) and with the ZEP Clock app for iOS and Android as a mobile time clock: both in the office and in the home office.