Establish whether you have to work overtime at all
There is no general duty to work beyond the agreed hours. A basis is needed — the contract, a collective agreement, a works agreement, or a genuine emergency.
✓ Verified: 11/08/2026
WHAT TO DO
› Details and tips
The limits of the Working Time Act apply even where you want to work more: this is health and safety law, not a contractual option. A waiver in the contract has no effect.
Check whether a works agreement on working time exists. It often settles compensation more clearly than the employment contract does.
Useful Tools
- BMAS — Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales legal-info
Federal Ministry of Labour: official guidance on employment law, leave and working time.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can the employer simply order you to stay? ▾
The right to give instructions may cover the content, performance, time and place of the work, but it does not extend the agreed volume of working time. A duty to work overtime follows from the contract, a collective or works agreement, or a genuine emergency.
What limits does the law set? ▾
Daily working time may not exceed eight hours. It may be extended to up to ten hours only where, within six calendar months or 24 weeks, an average of eight hours per working day is not exceeded.
What does on average mean? ▾
That extra hours must be brought back down within the averaging period: long days are permitted as long as the average over half a year or 24 weeks holds. This is health and safety law and applies whether or not the hours are paid.
What does the works council have to do with it? ▾
Where no statutory or collective rule exists, it co-determines the temporary extension or reduction of normal company working time. Overtime without its involvement is not only your dispute with the employer.
And if the contract says overtime may occur? ▾
That sentence answers neither of the two decisive questions: how many hours, and how they are compensated. Those two points determine whether you are owed money or time off.