Labour is usually 40–60% of operating cost once materials are set aside: the largest line you have, and mostly a fixed one.
Half an hour a day — The shift starts while people are still walking in and ends while they are washing their hands. Nobody is taking anything. It adds up on its own.
6.25% of the shift — 30 minutes out of 8 hours. That is 6.25% of the payroll, employer taxes included, paid for nothing.
The month closes from memory — The sheet is filled in on the last day, and the errors run both ways: one person is paid for time off the floor, another never gets the overtime they worked.
The counting itself costs — Collecting sheets, chasing signatures and reconciling a spreadsheet takes a day out of somebody's month, every month.
.jpg)
Payment follows the hours, and the record is what makes them hours.
Wages attach to time worked — Under Töölepingu seadus § 35 an employer pays for time the employee was ready to work but was given none. The obligation does not reach time the employee was not there.
No fines, no deductions — An employer may not fine a late employee or take money from their wages, and does not need to. The hours are counted as they were.
The shift starts at the workstation — The Labour Inspectorate's position is that at 08:00 the employee is in work clothes at their place, not walking in from the changing room. That is why the reader goes at the shop entrance, not at the gate.
It works for both sides — The employee gets proof of the overtime the employer is obliged to pay; the employer stops paying for time nobody worked.
Time-keeping, not tracking — Hours in and out, not where anyone walks. It is the record the law already requires, and nothing beyond it.
Payroll built on recorded hours — and a record that holds up when anyone asks.