Currently in Cyprus, under the Organization of Working Time Law, employers are obliged to maintain and keep records relating to employees who work above 48 hours per week on average.
Employers are also obliged to maintain a record of all employees who consent to work above 48 hours (on average) and to provide this to the competent authority when requested.
The aforementioned legislation does not expressly impose an obligation on employers to record the actual number of hours worked each day by employees (eg for those not working above 48 hours on average).
In the case of Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras v Deutsche Bank SAE (Case C‑55/18), the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) stated that the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC, which the Organization of Working Time Law adopted into Cyprus Law, obliges employers to establish a system for recording actual daily working time for full-time workers who have not expressly agreed to work overtime.
The Advocate General`s opinion is that without such a system, there can be no guarantee that all the limits laid down by the directive (in relation to maximum weekly working time, rest breaks, daily and weekly rest periods etc) will actually be observed or that workers will be able to exercise their rights.It should be noted that although the opinion of the Advocate General is advisory and not legally binding on the CJEU, it is however followed in most cases. The decision of the CJEU on this issue is due in the forthcoming months.In the event that the CJEU agrees with the Advocate General`s opinion and this is adopted by the CJEU, legislation will be required to be enacted locally in order to amend the Organization of Working Time Law and provide details or methods for recording working time.
If the CJEU adopts the Advocate General’s recommendation then there may be a question over whether Cyprus law complies with the Directive’s requirements.
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The above should be used as a source of general information only. It is not intended to give a definitive statement of the law.
