It should be noted that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held in a case referred to it from Spain – Federacion de Servicos de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) v Deutsche Bank SAE that employers must keep records of hours worked to fulfil their obligations under the European Working Time Directive. The court decided that if there was no such requirement, it would be impossible to determine objectively and reliably either the number of hours worked or when the work was done so as to benefit from the limitation on weekly working time and minimum daily and weekly rest periods provided by the Directive.
The Working Time Regulations 1998 do not currently require employers to keep records of hours worked and the Government will have to amend the Regulations if EU law remains in force in the UK – a matter, for which at the time of writing this update, we need a crystal ball!