A recent decision by the European Court of Justice may force a change in work schedules
In March of this year, the European Court ruled in decision C-477/21 that employees’ daily rest period cannot be part of their weekly rest period but must precede it. In practice, this means that several Estonian companies may be forced to change the principles of preparing their work schedules.
What exactly does the change consist of?
§ 51 of the Employment Contracts Act states that an employee has the right to a rest period of at least 11 hours between the end of a working day and the beginning of the next working day. § 52 of the same law stipulates the right to a weekly rest period between the end of a working week and the beginning of the next working week. In the case of cumulative working hours, the length of the weekly rest period must be at least 36 hours; in the case of fixed working hours it must be at least 48 hours.
The principle followed until now has been that the daily rest period has not been required to be added to the weekly rest period. For example, if an employee works 6 days a week from Monday to Saturday and finishes work on Saturday at 6 p.m., he is currently allowed to start working again on Monday at 6 a.m. However, the European Court has now taken the position that a daily rest period of at least 11 hours must be added to the weekly rest period. This means that if an employee works 6 days a week from Monday to Saturday and finishes work on Saturday at 6 p.m. then according to the decision of the European Court he may not start work again until Monday at 5 p.m.
In summary, it can therefore be said that from now on, at least 47 hours of uninterrupted time off work must be allowed for an employee every week in the case of cumulative working hours, and at least 59 hours in the case of fixed working hours. The Labour Inspectorate will apply the new approach from January 1, 2024.
Why is it necessary to add a daily rest period to the weekly rest period?
According to the explanations of the European Court, the daily rest period and the weekly rest period are two independent rights with different objectives. On the one hand, an employee must be guaranteed the opportunity to leave the work environment for a certain number of hours every day; on the other hand, an employee must be able to rest during every seven-day period.
If you have any questions regarding the application of rest periods, you can always contact the Chamber’s lawyers at the e-mail address of juristid@koda.ee. The Chamber’s members get one hour of legal consultation free every year.
Read the decision of the European Court HERE.