Book contents
- Front matter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: flexible EU governance in domestic practice
- 2 Theorising the domestic impact of EU law: the state of the art and beyond
- 3 EU social policy over time: the role of Directives
- 4 The Employment Contract Information Directive: a small but useful social complement to the internal market
- 5 The Pregnant Workers Directive: European social policy between protection and employability
- 6 The Working Time Directive: European standards taken hostage by domestic politics
- 7 The Young Workers Directive: a safety net with holes
- 8 The Parental Leave Directive: compulsory policy innovation and voluntary over-implementation
- 9 The Part-time Work Directive: a facilitator of national reforms
- 10 Voluntary reforms triggered by the Directives
- 11 The EU Commission and (non-)compliance in the member states
- 12 Beyond policy change: convergence of national public–private relations?
- 13 Implementation across countries and Directives
- 14 Why do member states fail to comply? Testing the hypotheses suggested in the literature
- 15 Three worlds of compliance: a typology
- 16 Conclusions: myth and reality of social Europe
- References
- Index
6 - The Working Time Directive: European standards taken hostage by domestic politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Front matter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: flexible EU governance in domestic practice
- 2 Theorising the domestic impact of EU law: the state of the art and beyond
- 3 EU social policy over time: the role of Directives
- 4 The Employment Contract Information Directive: a small but useful social complement to the internal market
- 5 The Pregnant Workers Directive: European social policy between protection and employability
- 6 The Working Time Directive: European standards taken hostage by domestic politics
- 7 The Young Workers Directive: a safety net with holes
- 8 The Parental Leave Directive: compulsory policy innovation and voluntary over-implementation
- 9 The Part-time Work Directive: a facilitator of national reforms
- 10 Voluntary reforms triggered by the Directives
- 11 The EU Commission and (non-)compliance in the member states
- 12 Beyond policy change: convergence of national public–private relations?
- 13 Implementation across countries and Directives
- 14 Why do member states fail to comply? Testing the hypotheses suggested in the literature
- 15 Three worlds of compliance: a typology
- 16 Conclusions: myth and reality of social Europe
- References
- Index
Summary
Aim and content of the Directive
The general aim of the Working Time Directive is to improve the health and safety of workers by laying down minimum standards for the organisation of working time (Article 2 of the Directive). The Directive is based on a wide interpretation of occupational health and safety which assumes that working long hours is harmful to workers’ health and thus has to be limited.
The Working Time Directive applies in principle to both public and private sectors. It includes twelve compulsory minimum standards.
As a general rule, workers may not work longer than forty-eight hours per week, averaged out over a period of four months.
Every worker has to be granted a consecutive daily rest period of eleven hours.
Every worker has to be granted a consecutive weekly rest period of thirty-five hours, averaged out over a period of two weeks.
Every worker has to be granted a break if the working day is longer than six hours.
Moreover, employees are entitled to at least four weeks paid annual leave.
The four weeks' paid annual leave may not be replaced by an allowance.
Night workers may not work more than eight hours per day (averaged out over aperiod to be defined by national law or collective agreement), while night workers whose job involves ‘special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain’(Article 8) must work no more than an absolute limit of eight hours per day.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Complying with EuropeEU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States, pp. 94 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005