What is rest time?
Rest time is the minimum uninterrupted time off an employee must have between two working days (daily rest) and within each week (weekly rest). It is a health and safety rule in working-time laws such as the Dutch Arbeidstijdenwet and the German Arbeitszeitgesetz.
Daily and weekly rest in the Netherlands
Under the Arbeidstijdenwet, an adult employee must have at least 11 consecutive hours off after a working day. Once in every 7 × 24 hours this may be shortened to 8 hours if the nature of the work requires it. Weekly rest is 36 consecutive hours in every 7 × 24 hours, or 72 hours in every 14 × 24 hours, which may be split into blocks of at least 32 hours. Night shifts come with longer rest requirements.
Daily rest in Germany and elsewhere
The German Arbeitszeitgesetz requires at least 11 uninterrupted hours of rest after the end of the daily working time, with exceptions for some sectors. Most EU countries use 11 hours as the baseline, because it comes from the EU Working Time Directive; Spain requires 12 hours between working days.
Rest violations are easy to create by accident: a late shift that ends at 23:00 followed by an early shift at 07:00 leaves only 8 hours. TimeTracking checks rosters and recorded shifts for 11-hour rest conflicts and warns the planner before the roster is published.
Related pages
Netherlands
Arbeidstijdenwet: 12 hours per shift, 60 per week, 11 hours of daily rest, breaks after 5.5 hours and strict night-shift rules.
Germany
ArbZG: 8 hours per working day (up to 10), breaks after 6 hours, 11 hours of rest, and mandatory time recording since the 2022 BAG ruling.
Break and rest checker
Check a shift against Dutch and German minimum break and 11-hour daily rest rules.
Break rules
Legal minimum breaks during a shift, based on how long the employee works that day.
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