CEJ judgement regarding stand-by duty as working time
Labor and Employment Law Alert 11-2018
Judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the case C-518/15 was published, in which ECJ had to define once again if stand-by time regime, where an employee has to be available to the employer, should be considered “working time” or “rest period”.
In previous case-law, ECJ considered that stand-by time should be considered “working time” if the employee had to be physically present in his workplace during the stand-by period.
In the above-mentioned judgement, ECJ introduces a new element in order to determine if a given stand-by regime should be considered “working time”, pointing out that in a situation where an employee is subject to a stand-by regime that obliges him to be at his place, at the employer’s disposal, in order to be able to reach his workplace within 8 minutes, shall be considered “working time”.
This judgement has impact on Portuguese jurisdiction, as it constitutes an ECJ’s interpretation of Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 4 November 2003, that has been transformed into national law, and Portuguese Courts’ interpretation of national law should be in line with the one of ECJ.
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