HR-Glossar
Teilzeit (part-time work)
When German employees have a right to reduce their hours, how bridge part-time works and what applies to holiday, pay and equal treatment.
1. What is Teilzeit (part-time work)?
Part-time work exists where regular weekly working time is shorter than that of comparable full-time employees in the same business (Section 2(1) TzBfG). No fixed number of hours defines the term – what matters is the comparison.
Section 8 TzBfG gives employees a right to reduce their working time where the employment relationship has lasted more than six months and the business regularly employs more than 15 people. The employer must agree so far as operational reasons do not stand in the way.
Since 2019 there has additionally been bridge part-time (Section 9a TzBfG): a reduction limited from the outset to between one and five years, with a guaranteed return to the previous working time. It requires a business regularly employing more than 45 people.
Throughout, the prohibition of discrimination in Section 4 TzBfG applies: part-time employees may not be treated less favourably because they work part-time. Benefits must be granted at least pro rata.
That last sentence has a practical edge for group benefit schemes. A benefit tied to full-time status – a company car, a bonus, a training budget – must be granted pro rata, not withheld.
2. Origin and development
Part-time work was long regarded as a marginal form of employment and was correspondingly poorly protected – worse prospects for advancement, proportionately smaller additional benefits, hardly any right of return. The Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act of 2001 made it a right and anchored equal treatment.
Bridge part-time closed a well-known gap: anyone who reduced their hours practically never came back – the so-called part-time trap. The time-limited route with a guaranteed return was the legislative answer to it.
3. Core principles and how it works
A right, not a plea for indulgence
Where the conditions are met, there is a legal entitlement. The employer can refuse only on operational grounds, and must set them out.
Form and deadline
The request must be made at the latest three months before it is to start; the refusal in turn must be given in writing and within the deadline. If the employer misses the deadline, the reduction is deemed settled.
The distribution is part of the negotiation
Not only the extent but also the placement of working time belongs to the entitlement. A reduction without a suitable distribution misses the point.
Equal treatment
Pay, holiday, additional payments and development opportunities are due at least pro rata. Less favourable treatment because of part-time status is impermissible.
A return is not automatic
Without bridge part-time there is no right to return to the previous working time – only priority when comparable positions are filled.
4. Who is Teilzeit (part-time work) relevant for?
- Employees with childcare or care responsibilities – the largest group in part-time work. - Employees in further training or approaching retirement – for them the time-limited form is particularly suitable. - Employers – they must answer requests within the deadline and be able to evidence operational grounds. - HR – converting holiday, additional payments and targets is ongoing work. - Works council – entitled to co-determine the distribution of working time.
5. How it differs from related terms
- Part-time and marginal employment – every marginal job is part-time, but not every part-time job is marginal. Marginal status depends on pay, part-time status on the comparison of hours. - Part-time and bridge part-time – an open-ended reduction is permanent; bridge part-time ends automatically with the return to the previous hours. - Part-time and partial retirement – partial retirement follows its own rules and serves a gradual transition into retirement. - Part-time and on-call work – on-call work is a form of part-time with varying placement; additional protective provisions on minimum duration and notice apply to it.
6. Variants and adaptations
- Classic part-time – a permanently reduced working week. - Bridge part-time – limited to between one and five years with a guaranteed return. - On-call work – working time as needed, with a statutory minimum duration and notice period. - Job sharing – two or more people share one position. - Partial retirement – its own legal framework for the transition into retirement.
7. Advantages and challenges
Advantages
- Makes work and private obligations compatible in the first place
- Skilled staff stay with the business instead of leaving
- Bridge part-time removes the one-way-street effect of reducing hours
- Businesses gain scope for covering peripheral hours
- Equal treatment is secured by statute, not a matter for negotiation
Challenges
- Lower pay and lower pension entitlements
- Without bridge part-time there is no right to return to full time
- For small businesses, covering the tasks can become harder
- Pro-rata calculation of additional payments and holiday is error-prone
- Part-time still correlates with poorer prospects for advancement, even where that is impermissible
- With on-call work there is a risk of uncertainty for both sides
8. Best practices for implementation
Keep an eye on the deadlines
An employer who does not refuse in writing in time has agreed. The arrival of a part-time request therefore belongs in a diary, not in a file.
Evidence the operational grounds, do not merely assert them
A refusal holds only where the grounds are set out intelligibly. Blanket organisational concerns are not enough.
Settle the distribution together
The extent alone rarely solves the problem behind the request. The placement of working time belongs in the same conversation.
Document the conversion
Holiday days, additional payments and target figures change pro rata. The calculation belongs in the personnel file, not in someone's memory.
9. Tips for employers and employees
For employers
- **Diarise the request** – the refusal deadline is running, and missing it counts as consent
- **Think of bridge part-time as an offer** – it keeps skilled staff who would otherwise leave entirely
- **Check equal treatment** – additional payments, company cars and training pro rata, not withheld
- **Recalculate holiday on a change** – otherwise an error arises that carries forward every year
For employees
- **Apply early and in writing** – three months' notice is the statutory minimum
- **State the placement of hours as well** – it belongs to the entitlement
- **Look at bridge part-time** – it secures the return that otherwise does not exist
- **Think about the pension effect** – less pay means lower entitlements; additional provision is a topic here
10. Conclusion
Part-time is a right, not a concession – and the statutory deadlines fall above all on the employer, because a refusal that is missed counts as consent. Bridge part-time has defused the model's greatest weakness by guaranteeing the return; an open-ended reduction, by contrast, remains a decision with no ticket back. In payroll the work lies less in the pay than in the pro-rata conversion of holiday and additional payments – that is where the errors arise that run on for years.
For an international group two things follow. The deadline mechanism is the same one that catches out part-time requests during parental leave: a request that sits unanswered becomes a granted request. And Section 4 TzBfG reaches group benefit schemes: a benefit conditioned on full-time status has to be granted pro rata here, and a policy that simply excludes part-time staff is not a policy choice but a breach.
A note on sources: there is no official English version of the TzBfG (checked on 2026-09-27); its German text governs.
Sources
- Section 2 TzBfG – Definition of part-time employment (German original; no official English version) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 4 TzBfG – Prohibition of discrimination (German original) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 8 TzBfG – Open-ended reduction of working time (German original) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 9a TzBfG – Time-limited reduction of working time, bridge part-time (German original) (opens in a new tab)
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