> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hr-easy.nlead.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Working time (ArG)

> Maximum weekly hours, mandatory breaks, and the annual overtime cap — as the platform enforces them.

The Arbeitsgesetz governs how long people may work and what rest they are owed. Three
of its rules are checked automatically against recorded time.

## Art. 9 — Maximum weekly hours

| Industry category                                                                                 | Maximum |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------: |
| Industrial undertakings, office staff, technical and other employees, sales staff in large retail |    45 h |
| All other employees                                                                               |    50 h |

The platform holds an **industry category** on each employee record — `INDUSTRIAL`,
`NON_INDUSTRIAL` or `OTHER`, defaulting to `OTHER` — and applies 45 hours to the first
and 50 to the other two. Nobody chooses the limit week by week.

It sits on the employee rather than on the employer because the ArG's categories follow
the *work being done*: an organization can employ people in more than one category, and
a category set once on the record then applies to every week that person works.

The weekly check reports the total, the applicable maximum, and the excess.

## Art. 15 — Mandatory breaks

Breaks scale with the length of the working day:

| Daily working time | Minimum break |
| ------------------ | ------------: |
| more than 5½ hours |    15 minutes |
| more than 7 hours  |    30 minutes |
| more than 9 hours  |    60 minutes |

The check runs per day over the recorded work blocks and reports the **shortfall**, so
the correction is unambiguous. This is why time is recorded as blocks with breaks
rather than as a bare daily total — the rule is about the shape of the day.

<Note>
  A break counts only if the employee is genuinely free of duty. A "break" spent supervising is
  working time. The platform records what you tell it; classifying the time correctly is a
  management responsibility.
</Note>

## Art. 12 — Annual overtime cap

| Industry category | Maximum overtime per calendar year |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------: |
| Industrial        |                              170 h |
| Other             |                              140 h |

Tracked as a running annual total with the remaining allowance shown, so the cap is
visible while there is still time to act on it.

## How violations surface

Each check returns a verdict with a **severity**:

| Severity    | Meaning                             |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------- |
| `warning`   | A threshold is being approached.    |
| `violation` | A statutory limit has been crossed. |

Each carries a message identifying which rule applies, and appears on the employee's
week, on the manager's team view, and in the compliance report.

## What the platform does not decide for you

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Which industry category applies">
    The ArG's category definitions are not a simple lookup from a business sector. Set it
    deliberately.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Night, Sunday and public-holiday work">
    Permit requirements and supplements are outside the automatic checks. Record the time; the
    permits and premia remain a management responsibility.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Employees outside the ArG's scope">
    Certain senior functions are excluded from the working-time provisions. The platform will still
    record and check their time — configure or ignore accordingly.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Stricter GAV rules">
    A collective agreement may impose lower maxima or longer breaks. Where it does, configure the
    stricter limit; the statutory check is a floor, not a ceiling.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Annualised working time

Where hours are budgeted over a year (**Jahresarbeitszeit**) — common in schools — the
annual target is tracked alongside the weekly ArG maxima, which still apply to each
individual week. An annual budget does not license a 60-hour week.

<Card title="How time is recorded" icon="clock" href="/guides/time-absence/time-tracking">
  Work blocks, schedules, Soll hours and the compliance surface.
</Card>