Additional tools

•  
•  

Advanced Search

Working Conditions - Working Time Directive

Working Time Directive

To protect workers’ health and safety, minimum rules are needed on working time in all EU Member States.

Under the EU’s Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC), each Member State must ensure that every worker is entitled to:

• a limit to weekly working time, 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 time, if the worker is on duty for longer than six hours
• a minimum weekly rest period of 24 uninterrupted hours for each seven-day period, which is added to the 11 hours' daily rest
• paid annual leave, of at least four weeks per year
• extra protection in the case of night work (for example, 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; there should be a right to free health assessments and in certain situations, to transfer to day work).

The Directive also sets out special rules for working time in a small range of sectors: doctors in training, offshore workers, sea fishing workers, workers in urban passenger transport... (There are separate directives on working time for certain workers in specific transport sectors)

The European Commission is currently reviewing Directive 2003/88/EC, by means of a two-stage consultation of the social partners at EU level and a detailed impact assessment. In December 2010, the Commission adopted a second-stage consultation paper asking workers' and employers' representatives for their views on possible changes to the Directive. The Commission also adopted a report on how the current working time rules are being implemented in the Member States and made available an independent study on the social and economic impact of the Directive.

Documentation is available on the Directive, its two forerunners, and on the 2004-2009 proposal to amend the Directive. 

Directives

• Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time

Documents on application of Directive 2003/88/EC

• External consultants's study (Executive Summaries) on the implementation of Directive 2003/88/EC in Bulgaria and in Romania (2009)
• Commission Report COM (2006) 371 - Operation of the provisions of Directive 2003/88/EC on the organisation of working time for workers concerned with the carriage of passengers on regular urban transport services 
• Commission Report COM (2006) 853 - Operation of the provisions of Directive 2003/88/EC applicable to offshore workers
• Study (2003): Business Impact Assessment Working Time Directive: Supplementary Report on Doctors in training

Preparatory Documents to Directive 2003/88/EC 

• Commission's proposal COM (2002) 336 - for a consolidating Directive concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time

Second-stage consultation paper

• Communication COM (2010) 801: Reviewing the Working Time Directive (second-phase consultation) of the social partners at European level 
• COM (2010) 802: Report on the implementation by Member States of the 'Working Time Directive' 
• SEC (2010) 1611: Detailed report on the implementation by Member States of the 'Working Time Directive' 
• SEC (2010) 1610: Overview of the replies received from the social partners at European Level to the first-phase consultation on Reviewing the Working Time Directive 
• Reviewing the Working Time Directive: Accompanying letter from Robert Verrue to EU social partners (2010)
• Deloitte Study (December 2010) to support an Impact Assessment on Further action at European level regarding Directive 2003/88/EC and the evolution of working time organisation / Executive Summary / Annexes 1-4 
  - Annex 1: Study on health ans safety aspects of working time 
  - Annex 3: Study on the impact on business: survey analysis 
• Expert Study: Flexible working time arrangements and gender equality (J. Plantenga and C. Remery, 2010)
• Eurofound (EFWL) studies: Comparative analysis of working time in the European Union (2010) / Fifth Working Conditions Survey (2010) / Revisions to the European working time directive: recent research (2008)
• European Commission research paper: Short time working arrangements as response to cyclical fluctuations (2010)
• Communication COM (2010) 106: Reviewing the Working Time Directive (first-phase consultation) of the social partners at European level

Previous Directives

The following Directives were consolidated and replaced by Directive: 2003/88/EC

• Directive 2000/34/EC amending Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time to cover sectors and activities excluded from that Directive
• Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time 

Archive documents: 2004-2009 proposal to amend Directive 2003/88/EC

(This proposal was not adopted, since the European Parliament and the Council could not reach agreement on it) 

• Commission Opinion COM (2009) 57 on the amendments of the European Parliament in second reading
• Amendments adopted by the European Parliament on the second reading, 17 December 2008 [A6/2008/440]
• Commission Communication COM (2008) 568 to the European Parliament on the Council's Common Position
• Common Position of the Council concluding the first reading, 15 September 2008
• Commission's amended proposal COM (2005) 246 for a Directive amending Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time
• Opinion of the European Parliament in the first reading [A6/2005/105]
• Commission's proposal COM (2004) 607 for a Directive amending Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time
• Second Phase of the Consultation of the Social Partners concerning the revision of Directive 93/104/EC
• Commission Communication COM (2003) 843 on the re-examination of Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time  

Archive documents on Directive 2000/34/EC

• Commission White Paper COM (1997) 334 on Sectors and activities excluded from the Working Time Directive 
• Commission Communication COM (1998) 662 - package of proposals regarding the organisation of Working Time in the sectors and activities excluded from Directive 93/104/EC including proposal for an amending Directive extending Directive 93/104/EC to cover certain sectors and activities
• Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time
• Business Impact Assessment Working Time Directive: Supplementary Report on Doctors in training
• Working Time: extent of coverage of excluded sectors and activities in national legislation [1996D2012]

Archive documents on Directive 1993/104/EC

• Commission proposal COM (1990) 317 for a Directive concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time
• Commission re-examined proposal COM (1993) 578 for a Directive concerning certain aspects of the organisation of Working Time
• Study (1998): Research and Development on Working Time [1997D2009]
• Commission Report COM (2000) 787 - State of Implementation of Council Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time