Brussels, 14/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - A national regulation, which does not allow workers to benefit from their daily rest breaks during their work contracts, even if these involve a contract of an 80 day maximum a year, is not in compliance with directive 2003/88/EC on working time. It removes the very substance of the individual law developed through this directive.
This is the main thrust of the decision made by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Thursday 14 October in Case C-428/09, in response to the French Council of State. The latter had requested information with regard to compliance between European law and a French decree, which excluded temporary and seasonal workers working in holiday centres (on contracts of a maximum of 80 working days a year) from having a minimum daily rest period.
The European directive guarantees the right to a minimum uninterrupted rest period of 24 hours plus the 11 hours' daily rest, indicated the ECJ. Nonetheless, the ECJ does allow derogations to these provisions for security guard activities, surveillance or ensuring cover when assuring the protection of goods and persons. Nonetheless, this derogation is strictly subordinated to reorganising the “period equivalent to compensatory rest breaks”, underlines the ECJ. In this connection, member states must guarantee a regular-change over between periods of work and uninterrupted periods of rest, immediately following the period of work, in order to provide workers with an opportunity to leave the workplace or have a work break. (F.G.)