The Commission has launched a public consultation on the review of the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC, which lays down minimum safety and health requirements for the organisation of working time. The questions raised in the consultation are unlikely to abolish the derogations available to the tourism sector. Members are invited to inform the Secretariat by 2 March 2015 if they see any issues with the questions in the consultation document.
The Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC provides minimum standards common to all Member States for protecting workers from health and safety risks associated with excessive or inappropriate working hours, and with inadequate time for rest and recovery from work.
The Directive requires EU countries to guarantee the following rights for all workers:
- a limit to weekly working hours, which must not exceed 48 hours on average, including any overtime;
- a minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours in every 24;
- a rest break during working hours if the worker is on duty for longer than 6 hours;
- a minimum weekly rest period of 24 uninterrupted hours for each 7-day period, in addition to the 11 hours’ daily rest;
- paid annual leave of at least 4 weeks per year;
- extra protection for night work, e.g. average working hours must not exceed 8 hours per 24-hour period;
- night workers must not perform heavy or dangerous work for longer than 8 hours in any 24-hour period;
- night workers have the right to free health assessments and, under certain circumstances, to transfer to day work.
The Directive does not set levels of pay, which is purely national responsibility.
At present the tourism sector benefits from the possibility of obtaining derogations from the articles governing daily rest, breaks, weekly rest and length of night work, provided that the workers concerned are afforded equivalent periods of compensatory rest or appropriate protection. These provisions may be relevant for tour operator representatives and tour leaders accompanying groups.
The Commission put forward a proposal to amend the Working Time Directive in 2004, but Parliament and Council were unable to reach a compromise. The Commission started a two-stage consultation of EU-level workers’ and employers’ representatives and a detailed impact assessment. The cross-sectoral workers’ and employers’ representatives favoured the option of negotiating on the Working Time review themselves. However, despite extensive talks no agreement was reached. In light of this and taking into consideration the changes in working patterns and organisation, the Commission is relaunching the review of the Working Time Directive.
The public consultation is available in all EU languages from the link below and the deadline is the 15th of March 2015:
