Teachers take legal action against constant stress: How one individual could break up the encrusted system of recording working hours

Civil servant on paper, overtime slave in reality?

Being a teacher - for many, that still sounds like a part-time job with long vacations. But anyone who is involved in day-to-day school life knows that the actual workload has little to do with the officially regulated workload. Secondary school teachers in particular often work far more than their weekly target hours - and without any reliable time recording.

In Baden-Württemberg, a teacher no longer wants to accept this - and is taking the matter to court. Supported by the Baden-Württemberg Philologists' Association, he is taking the state to court. His aim is to have the statutory working hours for a full-time teacher reviewed by the courts - because they systematically underestimate the actual workload.

Two rulings - zero implementation: how much longer?

The legal situation is actually clear. The European Court of Justice (2019) and the Federal Labor Court (2022) have made it clear: Employers must record daily working hours - objectively, accessibly and reliably. This also expressly applies to the public sector. However, this principle does not yet seem to apply to teachers. While ministries, school boards and even school psychological services have long been recording electronically, teachers' everyday working hours remain a blind spot.

Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Education Theresa Schopper (Greens) sees no need for action. A "prompt introduction" is not planned, according to the official answer to a parliamentary question. Why? Because there is still no legal regulation at federal level - although even the Federal Ministry of Labor has now admitted that the obligation already applies.

It's about more than hours - it's about justice

The teacher who is now suing wants more than just time recording via Excel. He wants a legal ruling that the working time regulations for secondary school teachers are unrealistic - because they ignore the multitude of tasks outside the classroom: Corrections, conferences, meetings with parents, supervision, projects, administrative tasks - the list is long.

Studies have been proving this for years: Teachers work an average of more than 45 hours per week, in some cases significantly more. Nevertheless, there is no official recording system. While a pilot project is planned in Bremen for 2026, there is still a standstill in many federal states - or political blockade, for example by the FDP in the traffic light government.

The Philologists' Association puts it in a nutshell: "Our members are no longer prepared to accept this structural overload as the norm." And he is right. Because without an objective assessment, any discussion about teachers' working hours remains a mixture of gut feeling, mistrust and political denial.

The problem is not new - but finally someone has the nerve to sue for it.

For years, ministries of education have systematically ignored the reality at schools - under the guise of "pedagogical freedom" and "vocation instead of profession". But this is no justification for unlawful overwork. If other professions document their hours to the minute - why not teachers?

The refusal to introduce a time recording system is not an administrative oversight, but a political calculation. After all, an honest assessment of teachers' working hours would show the extent to which the profession is based on self-exploitation.

The teacher's complaint is more than a personal protest - it is a potential turning point. Because only those who measure can also create justice. Anything else is politically convenient - but legally hardly tenable.