What is meant by normal working hours?
Normal working hours determine how many hours employees regularly work per day and week. In Austria, this is defined as § Section 3 Working Hours Act (AZG) the normal working hours with 8 hours a day and 40 hours per week. Anything over and above this counts as overtime.
In practice, however, working time models are diverse: part-time, flexitime, shift work or working from home change everyday life considerably. Although the definition of normal working hours remains anchored in law, it must be flexibly adapted to different forms of organization.
How are normal working hours implemented in practice?
The reality of many companies shows that simple fixed working hours are no longer sufficient. Digital HR systems such as Personalwolke enable:
- Automatic check of the maximum working time
- Flexible time models for every organization
- Flexitime, core time and break regulations in accordance with the AZG
- Transparent evaluations for management and payroll
This avoids errors, eliminates the need for manual calculations and ensures that working time is always mapped in accordance with the law.
Why is the correct mapping of normal working hours important?
For employees:
- Clear structuring of working hours
- Legally compliant billing of additional hours and overtime
- Transparency about hours worked and planned
For companies:
- Compliance with legal requirements and avoidance of penalties
- Efficient time management and reduction of administrative effort
- Support for flexible working models without compliance risk
Digital systems ensure that normal working hours are correctly recorded, evaluated and integrated into payroll accounting - even with complex models such as flexitime or working from home.
