Is the agreement reached at the Council on working time legal?

(B2) The agreement reached, the June 9, to the Council of Ministers of Labor on the modification of the "organization of working time" directive is it perfectly in line with the EC Treaty? We can legitimately doubt it.

The Working Time Directive is, in fact, based on Article 137 of the Treaty which provides for “the improvement of the working environment to protect the health and safety of workers”. A provision that the European Court of Justice has already, quite rightly, interpreted as imposing on the one hand to respect rest periods, on the other hand to have a strict definition of working time. By innovating, with a new "inactive working time" for on-call periods spent at work and allowing the social partners to derogate from rest periods, the 27 may not have really respected the spirit, or even the letter, of the Treaty.

However, the case law was clear and understandable. For once, you might say! This dispute is not only legal. In principle, this compromise is also shocking. Usually, the Commission endorses case law and adapts its legislation, at least in part. This time it's the opposite. The States – with the help of the Commission – have chosen to circumvent case law for a basic reason: considering on-call time as working time costs... too much. We are far from the main principles... and closer to the cash drawer!