In a sign of how unevenly the push for systematic working-time compliance is unfolding across Europe, Amazon is rolling out wearable scanners that automatically log hours, while Germany’s Handwerk sector warns that a long-awaited reform of federal time-tracking rules would bury small shops in red tape and big manufacturers face open rebellion over demands for unpaid extra work.
Amazon’s “Right Station Link”, now being tested in North America, equips support staff—maintenance and security workers, for example—with a sensor worn on the body that records their presence without measuring individual productivity. The company calculates that indirect labour of this kind eats up roughly 85 million hours annually, costing about $2.8 billion in wages. A wider North American rollout is scheduled before Christmas 2026. By automating attendance, Amazon hopes to shrink the share of non-productive hours, though it stresses the system only tracks time, not performance.
While the tech giant races ahead, Germany’s legislative track record on time recording remains sluggish. Germany’s Federal Labour Court ruled in 2022 that employers must systematically log working hours, and the European Court of Justice has demanded objective, reliable systems. Yet little has changed. A draft bill to amend the country’s Working Hours Act—presented in June—has sparked alarm among craft businesses. The Chamber of Crafts Reutlingen hit back on 25 June, arguing the proposed rules are unworkable for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Just as employers face growing pressure to get time-recording right, gaps in health and safety documentation can land UK companies with heavy fines. Many businesses lack the key risk assessments and checklists that regulators expect. A free Health & Safety Toolkit provides ready-to-use templates covering COSHH, fire safety, and more, helping you meet your compliance obligations without reinventing the wheel. Download the free Health & Safety Toolkit
Chamber president Alexander Wälde called for more flexibility, pointing to a particularly contentious clause: any deviation from legal standards would be tied to collective-bargaining agreements. Many Handwerk shops are not covered by such contracts, leaving them locked out of the flexibility the draft allows. Meanwhile, the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive had an implementation deadline of 7 June 2026—a date that has come and gone without Germany passing a final domestic regulation.
In heavy industry, the battle over time is far more confrontational. On 26 June, Mercedes-Benz’s management, led by Ola Källenius, sent a company-wide email to employees demanding more work for the same pay. The justification: high site costs, low factory utilisation, and climbing sick-leave rates. The numbers underline the pressure—group profit slumped from €10.4 billion in 2024 to €5.3 billion in 2025. A one-off bonus worth 18.4 % of a month’s wages for roughly 90,000 staff has been postponed to 2027. The company’s central works council promptly rejected the demand, calling the unilateral approach unacceptable.
Even as political and industrial fighting drags on, digital time-keeping is gaining ground among mid-sized firms that want to avoid the risks of manual spreadsheets. The error rate for handwritten time sheets or Excel logs runs at three to five percent. New platforms promise audit-proof documentation and GDPR compliance. One example: the DID Group completed a six-month transformation project on 26 June, using Microsoft Fabric and Azure to produce real-time equipment-utilisation analytics.
In neighbouring Austria, where digital time recording is already mandatory under law, such systems are seen as both a compliance tool and a competitive edge. They lower administrative overhead and deliver live transparency—benefits that Germany’s lawmakers, craftsmen, and workers are still fighting over.
