Berlin The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will deal with the minimum rest periods of employees in a Hungarian case on Thursday. The topic is also controversial in Germany, albeit for different reasons than in the case pending a decision. An overview:
The EU Working Time Directive stipulates that every employee must be granted a minimum rest period of eleven consecutive hours per 24-hour period. In addition, employees are entitled to a weekly rest period of at least 24 hours per seven-day period.
Following a complaint by a train driver, the ECJ must now decide whether the daily rest period is part of the weekly rest period. Specifically, whether the daily rest period must also be granted before a day off, for example at the weekend or a holiday, so that the weekly rest period is extended to at least 35 consecutive hours.
The German Working Hours Act stipulates that there must be an eleven-hour break between the end of the working day and the next start of work. “The eleven hours of daily rest are set,” says Gregor Thüsing, Director of the Institute for Labor Law at the University of Bonn. “Because the accumulated catch-up at the weekend through anesthetic sleep does not have the same regenerative effect.”
In other words, employees need sufficient breaks between two working days in order not to endanger their health and to maintain their productivity at work.
>> Read here: Strict controls, harsh penalties: How Spain’s Labor Minister is enforcing time recording
“Daily rest periods of eleven hours are of elementary importance for the health and work-life balance of employees,” emphasizes Anja Piel, board member of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). Reduced rest breaks made it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile work and life in a reasonable way. This has been proven by occupational medicine studies.
Are there exceptions to the daily rest period?
In certain areas, the quiet time can be reduced by up to one hour. This applies, for example, in hospitals, care facilities, hotels and restaurants, transport companies or in agriculture. The daily rest period can even be reduced by up to two hours by means of a collective bargaining agreement or works agreement.
For example, the collective agreement on mobile working concluded between the metalworking parties in Baden-Württemberg provides for the possibility of reducing the daily rest period to up to nine hours under certain conditions. In all exceptional cases, however, the following applies: The employer must then ensure within a reasonable period of time that the employees can make up for the missed rest periods.
Stand-by duty counts as working time, while on-call duty counts as rest time – unless the employee is ordered to work.
What criticism is there of the rest period regulation in Germany?
The Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) argues that the German Working Hours Act with its rest period regulation is no longer up to date in the digital age.
For example, the association has in mind the case where employees pick up their children from school or daycare in the afternoon and deal with them first, but then sit down for a moment to work in the evening. If you switch off your computer at 11 p.m., according to the strict interpretation of the Working Hours Act, you may not return to the office the next morning until 10 a.m. at the earliest.
Does the rest period really start over after each interruption?
In an expert opinion published last summer, the scientific services of the Bundestag refer to the prevailing opinion among lawyers that not every voluntary work performed by the employee can be counted as an interruption of the rest period. Rather, a “certain threshold of significance” is required.
Answering a single official e-mail late in the evening is unlikely to result in the eleven-hour rest period starting all over again. Unless the employer has requested an immediate response. It depends on “the respective circumstances of the individual case,” write the parliamentary lawyers.
>> Read here: Breaks, rest periods and overtime are regulated by law
Irrespective of this, the BDA would like to have more options than before to deviate from the rest time regulation by means of a collective agreement. For example, it could be temporarily adjusted to nine hours, or split into two blocks, one of which includes a seven-hour core undisturbed rest period.
The trade unions, on the other hand, do not want to shake the current working time law. With a view to the expected ECJ ruling, DGB board member Piel says she hopes for a decision that “gives the necessary space for occupational safety and health in the midst of often absurd debates”.
More: Regular night shifts may be remunerated differently than occasional night work