The Working Time Directive is a Directive in European Union law. It gives EU workers the right to at least 4 weeks in paid holidays each year, rest breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours; restricts excessive night work; a day off after a week's work; and provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week. It was issued as an update on earlier versions from 22 June 2000 and 23 November 1993. Since excessive working time is cited as a major cause of stress, depression and illness, the purpose of the directive is to protect people's health and safety.
Background
Like all European Union directives, this is an instrument which requires member states to enact its provisions in national legislation. The directive applies to all member states. It is possible to opt out of the 48-hour working week, but not the other requirements. After the 1993 Council Negotiations, when the 1993 version of the Directive was agreed to after an 11–1 vote, UK Employment SecretaryDavid Hunt said, "It is a flagrant abuse of Community rules. It has been brought forward as such simply to allow majority voting – a ploy to smuggle through part of the Social Chapter by the back door. The UK strongly opposes any attempt to tell people that they can no longer work the hours they want."
Contents
Aims and definitions
Part 1 – purpose as health and safety
Part 2 – definitions; night time is between midnight and 5 am and not less than seven hours
Part 14 – more specific EU provisions take precedence
Part 15 – minimum standards directive
Part 16 – maximum reference period is fourteen days for article 5; four months for article 6; and determined by collective agreement for article 8;
Part 23 – the directive cannot be a reason to reduce protection
Part 24 – reporting to the EU Commission on the implementation of the WTD
Parts 25–26 – review of derogations for fishing boats and passenger carriers
Breaks
Article 3 – there must be a daily rest of eleven consecutive hours per 24-hour period.
Article 4 – a rest period for every six hours, set by legislation or collective agreement.
Article 5 – weekly rest of 24 hours uninterrupted, on top of the daily rest in article 3, but derogation is justifiable for technical, organisational or work reasons.
Working week
Article 6
# member states must ensure weekly working time is limited by law, or collective agreement
# average working time should not exceed 48 hours for each 7-day period.
Article 17 – derogations allowed under arts 3–6, 8 and 16 for "managing executives or other persons with autonomous decision making powers", family workers and religious leaders ... doctors' provisions.
Article 18 – derogations by collective agreement.
Article 19 – limit to derogation for reference period.
Article 7 – annual leave of at least four weeks. The term "week" is defined by article 5, which refers to "weekly" as meaning a "seven-day period". If an employee's job is terminated, he or she is entitled to payment in lieu for holidays that were not taken.
Article 10 – night workers who risk health can be given guarantees.
Article 11 – night workers to be notified to competent authorities "if they so request".
Article 12 – night and shift workers should have health protected.
Article 13 – "an employer who intends to organise work according to a certain pattern takes account of the general principle of adapting work to the worker, with a view, in particular, to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined work-rate".
Case law
The Working Time Directive has also been clarified and interpreted through a number of rulings in the European Court of Justice. The most notable of these have been the "SIMAP" and "Jaeger" judgments. The SIMAP judgment defined all time when the worker was required to be present on site as actual working hours, for the purposes of work and rest calculations. The Jaeger judgment confirmed that this was the case even if workers could sleep when their services were not required.
