There have been European limits on working hours for a long time.
European legislation requires Member States to limit working time to 48 hours per week, possibly on average over a period which cannot exceed four months.
Until now, all the rules relating to the limitation of working hours in Belgium made it possible to guarantee compliance with European legislation.
The introduction of new categories of overtime for which recovery is not obligatory, the possible accumulation of several exemptions within the framework of which recovery is not obligatory, the increase of the internal limit, the extension of the duration of the reference period for compliance with the limits on working hours mean that it is necessary to specifically guarantee that the weekly limit of 48 hours must be respected over the reference period provided for by European legislation.
At any time it must be possible to guarantee that working hours will not exceed 48 hours on average over a period of four months, including overtime.
It should also be remembered that the case law of the European Court of Justice on the very notion of working time may be broader than that used in Belgian legislation (for limits obviously lower than those of the directive). Sleeping hours at the workplace must, for the Court, be considered entirely as working time, which is not necessarily the case in certain sectoral regimes established on the basis of article 19 of the law of March 16, 1971 on the work. Likewise, for workers who do not have a fixed place of work, the Court considers as working time the travel time of the worker from his home to his first client.
Coming into force : February 1, 2017
Source : Law of March 5, 2017 concerning feasible and manageable work, art. 6.
2024-02-23 00:30:38
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