Overview

• The Pestel-Institut’s Arbeitszeit-Monitor, commissioned by the NGG, estimates roughly 54.4 million overtime hours in Berlin in 2024, with about 30.2 million not paid.
• Hospitality workers in hotels, restaurants and bars accounted for around 1.4 million overtime hours, and about 52 percent of those hours went unpaid.
• NGG’s Sebastian Riesner warns the federal coalition’s shift from an eight-hour daily limit to a weekly cap could permit 10 to 12-hour shifts and up to 73.5-hour weeks under EU rules.
• The Hugo Sinzheimer Institute cautioned in May that extending daily maxima beyond 12 hours would likely harm health, raise accident risks and be economically counterproductive.
• The monitor reports similar patterns beyond Berlin, with Mittelsachsen residents logging about 3.5 million extra hours in 2024, roughly 1.9 million of them unpaid.