LOV 89 Work Time Records: What to Keep and Where in 2026

For construction companies in Denmark that employ Polish and other EU workers, keeping proper working-time records is not an administrative nicety, it is a legal obligation with real consequences. LOV 89, Denmark's Working Time Act, sets out exactly what employers must document, and Arbejdstilsynet inspectors are entitled to check those records at any time. Understanding what data to collect, in what format, and for how long is the first step toward staying compliant in 2026.

What LOV 89 actually requires employers to record

The core obligation under LOV 89 (the Danish Working Time Act, consolidated text) is that employers must be able to demonstrate, for each worker, that the rules on maximum weekly working time and mandatory rest periods are being observed. That means the record must capture, at minimum, the start and end time of each working day, any breaks that count toward daily rest, and the total hours worked in each reference period used to calculate the average working week.

For foreign workers on posted or rotational contracts, the documentation burden is often heavier in practice. Wage supplements, overtime triggers, and holiday accrual all depend on the same underlying time data, so a gap in the working-time record quickly becomes a gap in several other compliance areas at once. If you are still clarifying how supplements are calculated for your EU crew, the article Tillaeg Explained: Wage Supplements for EU Workers in 2026 covers the interplay between hours and pay components in detail.

Which data fields must the record contain

A compliant working-time record for each employee should include the following fields:

• Full name and CPR number or equivalent identification for posted workers who do not yet have a Danish CPR number, the passport number or EU national ID number is acceptable as a unique identifier.
• Date of each working day, including days on which no work was performed if the worker was on call or on a rest day within a shift cycle.
• Start time, end time, and net working hours per day, with breaks deducted where applicable.
• Weekly totals and the rolling average across the reference period used to demonstrate compliance with the maximum average working week.
• Any derogations or opt-out agreements signed by the individual worker, kept alongside the time record so an inspector can verify both the agreement and the actual hours in one place.

Collective agreements negotiated by unions such as 3F may set additional requirements or modify certain thresholds. Always cross-reference the specific agreement that applies to your workforce and sector, as the construction industry has its own provisions.

Accepted formats: paper, digital, or hybrid

Danish law does not mandate a single technical format. Records may be kept on paper, in a spreadsheet, in a dedicated workforce management system, or in any combination of these, provided the data is legible, complete, and retrievable within a reasonable time when an inspector requests it. Arbejdstilsynet's guidance on working time confirms that the employer bears the burden of proof: if the record cannot be produced, the presumption is that the rules were not followed.

In practice, digital records have a clear advantage for multi-site construction projects with rotating crews. A digital system creates an automatic audit trail, timestamps entries, and makes it straightforward to export data in the event of an inspection or a dispute. Whatever format you choose, the record must be accessible from Denmark, storing everything exclusively on a server in Poland or another EU country without a local access point is a practical risk even if it is not explicitly prohibited.

How long must records be kept

The retention question is where many employers make avoidable mistakes. Working-time records do not stand alone: they overlap with payroll records, posted-worker notifications, and holiday pay calculations. Arbejdstilsynet does not publish a single universal retention period for working-time records, so employers should apply the longest applicable period across all overlapping obligations. Danish bookkeeping rules under the Bogføringsloven require financial records, which include wage documentation, to be retained for a period set out in that act; check the current consolidated version on retsinformation.dk (Bogføringsloven) for the exact figure, as it governs your payroll archive.

For posted workers, the obligation to notify via RUT (the Register of Foreign Service Providers) and to keep associated documentation adds another layer. Whenever a posted worker's assignment ends, the time records for that assignment should be archived together with the RUT notification and any relevant employment contract, creating a single coherent file per assignment.

Holiday pay entitlement is directly tied to working hours, so the time record is also the foundation of any holiday pay calculation. If your crews work short rotations, the article Calculating Holiday Pay for Short-Rotation Workers: 2026 Guide explains how to use the time record correctly when accrual periods do not align with the standard Danish holiday year.

Where to store the records physically and digitally

Records must be available for inspection at the workplace or at the employer's Danish registered address. For construction sites, this typically means the site office or the project manager's laptop, with a backup copy held at the company's main office. Cloud storage is acceptable provided the data can be accessed and printed during an Arbejdstilsynet visit without depending on an internet connection that may be unavailable on site.

Personal data in working-time records is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation. The Danish Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) has issued guidance confirming that working-time data constitutes personal data and must be handled accordingly: stored securely, accessible only to those with a legitimate need, and deleted or anonymised once the retention period expires. Review the Danish Data Protection Act (Databeskyttelsesloven) alongside your retention policy to ensure the two obligations do not conflict.

Risks of non-compliance

Failing to maintain adequate working-time records exposes the employer to enforcement action by Arbejdstilsynet, which can issue improvement notices, prohibition notices, and administrative fines. The reputational and operational cost of a prohibition notice on an active construction site, halting work until compliance is demonstrated, typically far exceeds the cost of setting up a proper documentation system in advance. If the non-compliance involves posted workers, the consequences can extend to the sending company in the worker's home country as well.

Termination disputes also hinge on working-time records. If a worker or a union challenges a dismissal and the employer cannot produce a complete time record, the employer's position is significantly weakened. The article Dismissing Agency Workers in Denmark: A 2026 Guide outlines how documentation gaps affect the legal risk profile of an employment termination.

Concrete next steps for site managers and HR

1. Audit your current system. Check whether every worker on every active site has a complete, up-to-date working-time record that includes all the fields listed above.
2. Identify the longest applicable retention period across working-time law, bookkeeping law, and any collective agreement, and set your archive policy to that period.
3. Centralise posted-worker files. For each assignment, create a single folder, physical or digital, containing the RUT notification, the employment contract, and all working-time records for that assignment.
4. Ensure on-site accessibility. Confirm that records can be retrieved and shown to an inspector within minutes, not hours, during an unannounced visit.
5. Review GDPR compliance. Set a deletion or anonymisation schedule that kicks in automatically once the retention period ends, and restrict access to working-time data to those who genuinely need it.
6. Train site managers. The person on site during an inspection is usually the site manager, not the HR department. Make sure they know where the records are and how to access them.