Directive 2003/88 / EC on certain aspects of the organization of working time

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Directive 2003/88 / EC

Title: Directive 2003/88 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 4, 2003 on certain aspects of the organization of working time
Designation:
(not official) 		Working Time Policy
Scope: EEA
Legal matter: Employment Law
Basis: Article 137 (2) of the EC Treaty
Procedure overview: European Commission
European Parliament
IPEX Wiki
Come into effect: August 2, 2004
Replaces: Directive 93/104 / EC , Directive 2000/34 / EC
Implemented by: Germany
Working Hours Act , Federal Holiday Act
Austria
Resting Work Act , Working Hours Act
Reference: OJ L 299 of 11/18/2003, pp. 9-19
Full text Consolidated version (not official)
basic version
The regulation must have been implemented in national law.
Please note the information on the current version of legal acts of the European Union !

The guideline 2003/88 / EG on certain aspects of the organization of working time is a guideline of the European community , which regulates the organization of working time within the European economic area .

Like all European directives, the Working Time Directive is addressed to the member states and must therefore be transposed into national law by the individual member states.

It was preceded by Directives 93/104 / EC and 2000/34 / EC.

Content of the policy

Chapter 1 (Articles 1 and 2) defines the subject matter, scope and definitions.

Chapter 2 (Articles 3 to 7) regulates minimum daily and weekly rest periods , minimum annual leave , breaks and maximum weekly working hours :

  • Article 6 states that “the weekly working time shall be determined by national laws, regulations or administrative provisions or in collective agreements or agreements between the social partners” and that “the average working time per seven-day period shall not exceed 48 hours including overtime”.
  • Article 7 stipulates that the employee shall have at least four weeks of annual leave and that this may not be replaced by financial allowance, except when the employment relationship is terminated.

Chapter 3 (Articles 8 to 13) regulates aspects of night work , shift work and the rhythm of work.

Chapter 4 (Articles 14 to 16) contains provisions on more specific or more favorable provisions and reference periods, Chapter 5 (Articles 17 to 22) regulates, among other things, exceptions, deviations and transitional provisions, and Chapter 6 (Articles 23 to 29) contains final provisions.

Special features in the application

According to the final report of the study carried out by KPMG on the development of attractive and competitive working hours and hours of service compensation models for soldiers from June 2013, the Bundeswehr, in accordance with the decision of the then German State Secretary Peter Wichert, practiced a blanket exemption from the EU Working Time Directive. However, the study emphasizes that after a detailed analysis it was concluded that this EU Working Time Directive “is fundamentally and directly applicable to soldiers ”; only the use , u. U. including the journey to and from the place of work is excluded from the scope of the directive. Special situations such as military exercises or sea voyages could be resolved through special regulations. The results of the KPMG study did not become public until the Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen .

The guideline also applies to the United Kingdom , but there is an opt-out rule for maximum weekly working hours . Under certain conditions, an employee can work more than 48 hours per week with his consent.

Efforts to amend the directive

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued several judgments on the interpretation of the Working Time Directive (see, for example, European framework conditions for on-call duty ), which had an impact on the national implementation of the directive. Since then, amendments have been proposed several times.

On June 9, 2008, the Council of Ministers of the 27 EU member states agreed on an amendment which should come into force if the European Parliament approves it. According to the draft, exceeding an average weekly working time of 48 hours should be the exception, but should be possible if enshrined in national law or through collective agreements, whereby the Member States must ensure effective protection for the safety and health of employees. According to the draft, a distinction should also be made between active and inactive phases of on- call time: Article 2a of the draft stated: "The inactive part of on-call time is not considered as working time, unless national law or (...) collective bargaining rules regulate otherwise". Furthermore, the individual opt-out , according to which working hours of more than 48 hours per week is possible by individual agreement, should be retained. The relevant time interval for calculating the average working time should be extended to twelve months. The agreement to amend the Working Time Directive was part of an overall package that also included a draft revision of the Temporary Agency Work Directive .

On December 17, 2008, the European Parliament voted with an absolute majority in favor of the amendment of the draft of the Council of Ministers. A conciliation procedure between Parliament and the Council therefore had to take place. According to the will of Parliament, the maximum weekly working time in the EU should be an annual average of 48 hours. Exceptions to this rule should expire within three years. All on-call time, including inactive time, should, in the opinion of MEPs, be considered working time.

In April 2009 the negotiations in the mediation committee ended with no results; the reform of the working time directive has since failed.

European directives only have an indirect effect on the legal situation in the member states through their implementation in national law. According to the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), the new EU directive paves the way for poorer pay for employees on standby duty. The German Federal Ministry of Labor had declared that there was now a “manageable need for change”, and the Federal Labor Minister had announced that the high standards of the German Working Hours Act would not be changed even if the directive were to be changed. Federal Health Minister Ulla Schmidt had declared that nothing would change immediately for German doctors and other employees.

literature

  • Lukas Starker: Commentary on the EU Working Time Directive . Linde Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7073-0885-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Final report of the study on the development of attractive and competitive working hours and hours of service compensation models for soldiers. (PDF; 2.7 MB) (No longer available online.) June 2013, archived from the original on April 5, 2014 ; Retrieved April 5, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Pp. 3-6. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmvg.de
  2. ↑ The vision of a family-friendly company. In: bundeswehr journal . February 4, 2014, accessed April 5, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Maximum weekly working hours. www.gov.uk, accessed March 5, 2016 (English).
  4. ↑ Amended proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/88 / EC on certain aspects of the organization of working time / * COM / 2005/0246 final - COD 2004/0209 * / (PDF)
  5. ↑ Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/88 / EC on certain aspects of the organization of working time {SEC (2004) 1154} (PDF)
  6. ↑ Lars Herrmann, Christian Schlottfeldt: On-call duty - everything back as before? - Consequences of the planned changes to the EU Working Time Directive. 2004, accessed June 14, 2008 .
  7. ↑ Press release (PDF; 328 kB) by the Council on its meeting from June 9 to 10, 2008.
  8. ↑ a b c Proposal for a new EU working time directive. In: tagesschau.de. June 10, 2008, accessed June 14, 2008 .
  9. ↑ EU Working Time Directive as a further social blow. June 10, 2008. Retrieved June 19, 2008 .
  10. ↑ Press release (PDF; 328 kB) of the Council on its meeting from June 9-10, 2008, p. 8.
  11. ↑ a b c Only 48 hours left. June 10, 2008, accessed June 14, 2008 .
  12. ↑ EU Council of Ministers agrees on working time guidelines. (No longer available online.) In: Magazine for European Politics, No. 54, 07/08. www.bundesregierung.de, archived from the original on May 18, 2015 ; Retrieved July 19, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesregierung.de
  13. ↑ EU directives on working hours and agency work. verdi.de, accessed on July 19, 2008 .
  14. ↑ Press release  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the European Parliament of December 17, 2008, accessed on December 20, 2008.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.europarl.de  
  15. ↑ Working time reform failed: 78-hour week possible in EU in future. Handelsblatt Online, April 28, 2009, accessed on May 1, 2009 .
  16. ↑ Failed negotiations: EU working time reform failed. Handelsblatt Online, April 28, 2009, accessed on May 1, 2009 .
  17. ↑ EU agrees on working time directive. (No longer available online.) In: haz.de. June 10, 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 14, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.haz.de  
  18. ↑ On- call services - Doctors run a storm against working time resolution. Welt Online, June 10, 2008, accessed June 14, 2008 .