Break calculated incorrectly Civil servant sues employer - over 13 minutes of working time

Lea Oetiker

19.3.2025

A customs officer in Baden-Württemberg sued his employer for deducting too much time from his break.
A customs officer in Baden-Württemberg sued his employer for deducting too much time from his break.
Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

Running private errands during working hours: Is that work? A customs officer from Germany argued about this with his employer.

No time? blue News summarizes for you

  • A customs officer in Baden-Württemberg successfully sued for 13 minutes of working time that were deducted as a break.
  • The Sigmaringen Administrative Court ruled that a private break from work does not count as working time or an official break.
  • The ruling is not yet legally binding.

In the German state of Baden-Württemberg, a federal civil servant successfully sued for 13 minutes to be credited to his working time account. The Sigmaringen Administrative Court ruled in favor of the man after his first appeal was rejected.

The judges ruled that his employer should not have reduced his time. The ruling is not yet legally binding. This was reported by several German media outlets.

The customs officer worked 6 hours and 7 minutes. However, his employer deducted 20 minutes from his break to ensure that he did not exceed the maximum permitted working time of six hours without a break for health and safety reasons.

According to German law, employees must take regular breaks: After six hours of work there is at least a 30-minute break, after nine hours at least 45 minutes. An uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours must be guaranteed between two working days. Breaks of less than 15 minutes do not count as a proper break. And the employer must ensure that employees can actually take these breaks.

Entitlement to the working time credit

In this case, the man had initially worked from 6 a.m. to 7.10 a.m., then interrupted his shift for 13 minutes for private reasons and then continued working from 7.23 a.m. to 12.20 p.m. His break was then deducted.

The boss did not recognize the 13-minute interruption as an official break. He said that it was not possible to recover properly in such a short time.

The court in Sigmaringen ruled in favor of the customs officer and confirmed his claim to credit for the working time.

The judges disagreed with the boss. The boss thought that breaks of less than 15 minutes still counted as working time because they were too short for a break. But the judges explained that it is only work if the employee is actually doing their job. If someone takes a short break of their own accord, this does not count as working time. Therefore, the boss cannot count this self-chosen break as working time.