German Red Cross workers today won a court battle over working time to increase pressure on the European Union to adopt proposed changes to a law that limits the working week.
The European Court of Justice ruled that the medical rescue workers could not be asked to work more than the EU limit of 48 hours a week even though the extra hours had been agreed under the terms of a collective agreement.
The 49-hour week averaged by the workers included three hours a day they spent on call. This would not necessarily count as working time under a controversial proposal tabled in September by the Commission.
That proposal called for a redefinition of working time after a 2003 court ruling forced Germany and other countries to count all the time doctors spent in hospital as standard working time, regardless of whether they were asleep.
Today's court ruling affirmed the principle of counting time spent on call as working time and added that exemptions from the working week limit could only be valid if workers consented individually and freely.
"It is not sufficient for the employment contract to refer to a collective agreement permitting such an extension," the court said in a press release.
The Commission said the changes it had proposed to the EU working time law would address the issues raised by this case and the one last year involving Germany as time spent on call would only count as working time if people actually worked.
However, a deal may be some way away given the differences of opinions on the overall proposal that emerged at Monday's meeting of social and employment ministers.