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Working time check for Denmark – 11-hour rule, weekly rest day and 48-hour rule

Check your shifts against the Danish working time rules: the 11-hour rest rule, the weekly rest day, the 48-hour rule, breaks and night work.

Danish rules

This calculator applies Danish law and Danish collective agreements. It is for employment in Denmark and does not reflect the rules of other countries.

Try:

Your work periods

Record each shift or working day with a start and end time.

No periods yet.

Use “Fill period” for a fixed weekly schedule, try an example above, or add one shift at a time.

Working time check

No periods recorded yet.

The result updates as you enter your periods.

Your data is stored only in your own browser. The check follows the main rules of Danish law — your collective agreement (overenskomst) may deviate from them.

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About the Working Time Check

The Working Time Check tests your working hours against the rules that apply to all employees in Denmark: the 11-hour rest rule, the weekly rest day (fridøgn), the 48-hour rule, the right to a break and the rules on night work. You record your shifts or working days with start, end and break. The tool finds the breaches, tells you which day they fall on, and shows how many hours you can work before the average becomes too high. Use it to check a shift rota before it takes effect, or to document working time that has already passed. The rules are Danish: if you work in another country, different limits apply.

The rules
  • 11-hour rule (§ 50 of the Working Environment Act, arbejdsmiljøloven): At least 11 consecutive hours of rest within every 24-hour period. The rule is about the rest between shifts — there is no rule on how long a shift may be, so even a 24-hour shift is lawful. Gaps of less than 2 hours count as a break within the shift. At shift changes in shift work and in agriculture, the rest can be reduced to 8 hours. For a single rest period, the 11-hour calculator finds the earliest lawful start time.
  • Weekly rest day (§ 51): A rest day (fridøgn) within every period of 7 days, immediately following a daily rest period — in other words at least 24 + 11 = 35 hours of continuous time off. It is not the calendar week that counts: from the end of one rest day to the start of the next, no more than 133 hours may pass (7 × 24 − 35).
  • 48-hour rule (§ 4 of the Working Time Act, arbejdstidsloven): No more than 48 hours a week on average over 4 months, overtime included. A single week may well be longer. Holiday and sickness are neutral. The act does not say whether the 4 months are fixed (e.g. January–April) or move over time, and the Court of Justice of the EU has accepted fixed periods (case C-254/18). The tool uses the strictest reading: the average is checked in every 4-month period, whichever day it starts. Some collective agreements (overenskomster) use a longer reference period, e.g. 26 weeks.
  • Break (§ 3): If you work more than 6 hours, you are entitled to a break long enough to serve its purpose. The act sets no specific length, and several short breaks may be enough.
  • Night work (§§ 2 and 5): The night period is 22-05 unless otherwise agreed. You are a night worker if you normally work at least 3 hours in the night period, or if you work at least 300 night hours in 12 months. Your normal working hours may then be no more than 8 hours per 24 hours on average over 4 months.
The fields explained
  • Date, start and end: One row per shift. If the end time is before the start time, the shift ends the next day (shown as +1).
  • Break: Minutes when you are off and not on call. The break is deducted from working time. A paid break during which you must be ready to work is working time. Do not deduct it.
  • Work: All working time, including overtime, courses and meetings you are required to attend.
  • On call at the workplace: You must stay at a place designated by the employer. This is working time.
  • On call at home: You can be at home but must be able to report for duty when called. It counts as rest, and only the call-out counts as work. Record the call-out as a work period on top of the on-call period. If the constraint is so strong that you are not really off, you can turn on the setting so the whole on-call period counts as working time.
  • Holiday and sickness: Record the hours you were scheduled to work. They count towards the 48-hour average, so the absence neither raises nor lowers the average.
  • Public holiday off: Counts as 0 hours. It is rest.
  • Fill period: Creates a fixed weekly schedule for a period and marks the Danish public holidays (helligdage). You can see the year's public holidays and working days in Public holidays and working hours. Afterwards, adjust the days that differ.
  • Add period: At the bottom, a shift is added the day after the last one. If there are days without entries between two shifts, you can insert a shift in the gap.
  • Save and Open: If you are logged in, you can save the periods and settings as a .ua file and open it again later — also on another computer.
  • Rules and assumptions: Reduced rest (8 hours), the length of the reference period in months or weeks, the night period and night work involving special strain. The default is the main statutory rules.

Worked examples

Evening shift followed by morning shift

You finish on Tuesday at 22:00 and start on Wednesday at 06:00.

06:00 − 22:00 = 8 hours' rest < 11 hours

The earliest lawful start time is 09:00.

Result:Breach — 8 hours' rest

24-hour shift

You are on duty from Monday 08:00 to Tuesday 08:00 and start again on Wednesday at 08:00.

Tue 08:00 → Wed 08:00 = 24 hours' rest ≥ 11 hours

The length of the shift is not a breach. Had you started again on Tuesday at 16:00, there would only have been 8 hours' rest — that is a breach.

Result:Compliant

55 hours a week for 4 months

The period 5 January – 4 May 2026 is 120 days = 17.14 weeks. There are 86 weekdays of 11 hours each.

86 × 11 = 946 hours · limit 17.14 × 48 = 823 hours

946 ÷ 17.14 = 55.2 hours a week on average. That is 123 hours too many. The tool runs the same calculation for every possible start day and shows the most heavily loaded period.

Average:55.2 hours/week — breach

Rest day across the change of week

You are off on Sunday and Monday and then work Tuesday through Saturday of the following week — 12 days in a row. Both calendar weeks have days off, but the period from Tuesday to the following Monday has none.

Tue 07:00 → Sat 15:00 (+11 days) = 272 hours > 133 hours

Every 7-day period must contain a rest day of at least 35 hours.

Result:Breach — 12 days without a rest day
As an employer in Denmark, note that

You must have an objective, reliable and accessible system that records each employee's daily working time (arbejdstidsloven § 4 b). This tool only stores data in the individual's browser and cannot replace such a system.

The rest rules concern how working time is organised. Supervision is the employer's responsibility, and breaches can lead to a fine, even when they are neither deliberate nor systematic.

The rest period and the rest day can only be departed from where the law allows it. In unforeseen events such as accidents and machine breakdowns, the deviation must be documented in writing (arbejdsmiljøloven § 52). An agreed deviation must be clear and unambiguous. Both trigger a duty to give compensatory rest (§ 56).

Time you require the employee to spend on the business is, as a rule, working time. This includes, for example, compulsory changing into work clothes.

As an employee in Denmark, note that

Your collective agreement (overenskomst) may have other rules, e.g. a longer reference period, reduced rest for certain types of shift or a different night period. Check it before concluding that the rules have been broken.

Managers and employees who set their own working hours may be exempt from the 48-hour rule if this is stated in the employment contract (arbejdstidsloven § 1(6)). If you are under 18, stricter rules apply, e.g. 12 hours' rest (arbejdsmiljøloven § 62).

That time counts as working time under the rest rules does not automatically mean you are entitled to pay for it. Pay is determined by your collective agreement or contract.

Your entries stay in your browser until you clear them. Save them as a file (requires login) if you need them as documentation or want to continue on another computer.