The euro area’s public debt has been piling up, rising to a record 13.11 trillion euros this quarter, as the economy continues to sink amid rising inflation caused by the energy crisis. Prices have soared and the quality of people’s lives has generally declined. German workers are working more overtime this year, German media reported.
A survey of 17,827 German employees by personnel management software Kenjo, which uses unit hours records, found that 19% of their working hours were spent in overtime. And overtime has soared: the proportion of hours worked per person has risen by an average of 42 per cent over the previous year. The average overtime in 2021 was 48 hours. By early October, however, they had worked 42 hours of overtime — and the year isn’t over yet! And that figure only shows companies that have overtime records, not those that don’t. “Expect a lot of unverifiable overtime,” says Kenjo.
According to the company, less than half of German employees use a proper system to track their working hours, and only a third of them record overtime hours. And the company did not pay regular overtime, overtime pay only half. Overtime data from the Federal Statistics Office for 2021 showed that 59 percent of employees even worked up to 10 hours of overtime in six days, and one in five employees worked unpaid overtime.
According to the German government, if the employer arranges employees to work overtime, it is obliged to pay the overtime labor fee, and the employee also has the power and obligation to provide proof and supervision: the employed employee must prove whether the overtime work is ordered, approved, tolerated or necessary for the completion of the work.
Overtime recording will be mandatory from September, following a decision by Germany’s federal Labour Court.