Mrs Thyssen says status of volunteer firefighters may be subject to derogations from ‘Working Time’ Directive

The European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, assured the European Parliament on Thursday 19 September that the status of volunteer firefighters was not threatened by the ‘Matzak’ judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and could in any case be subject to derogations from the ‘Working Time’ Directive.

The CJEU delivered a judgment in February 2018 on the ‘Rudy Matzak’ case in which it considered that on-call time for a volunteer firefighter qualified as “work” under the Working Time Directive (see EUROPE 11966/29). The judgment upset some Member States, such as France and Germany, where volunteer firefighters represent a large number of firefighters.

The commissioner sought to allay concerns. “In any event, the Working Time Directive provides for flexibility to accommodate the needs of emergency services”, Mrs Thyssen stressed. The commissioner recalled that derogations from daily and weekly rest period requirements and from the maximum 48-hour working week were possible under certain conditions. In the event of natural disasters, “the directive may be totally inapplicable”.

According to the Commissioner, the ‘Matzak’ judgment does not require Member States to review the voluntary firefighters’ status. Nor does the judgment change the notion of “worker”. Each case is specific, she repeated, stressing that Mr Matzak's situation was very restrictive.

New directive? Many people brought up the question of adopting a revision of the Working Time Directive or drafting a new directive on civic engagement, particularly Milan Brglez (S&D, Slovenia). The commissioner made no commitments; she is approaching the end of her mandate and confirmed that she would forward the information to her successor, who is likely to be Nicolas Schmit.

At the end of the debate, Mrs Thyssen mentioned that she is ready to set up a platform to put national authorities in contact with the Commission for those Member States that may be affected by the recent decisions of the Court. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)