KEY POINTS
EU countries
EU countries must ensure that all workers are entitled to:
a minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours in every 24;
a rest break in any working day longer than 6 hours;
an uninterrupted 24-hour rest period every 7 days, in addition to the daily 11 hours;
at least 4 weeks paid annual leave;
a maximum average working week of 48 hours, including overtime, over 7 days.
Normal night work should be no more than 8 hours on average in any 24-hour period.
Night workers are entitled to free health checks at regular intervals.
National authorities
National authorities may:
use reference periods, ranging from 14 days to 4 months, to calculate weekly rest periods and maximum weekly working time;
exempt managing executives, other senior decision makers, family workers and religious officials from the legislation.
Derogations to certain provisions may also apply for any of the following:
security and surveillance activities requiring a permanent presence to protect people or property;
continuity of service or production in areas such as hospitals, docks, airports, the media and agriculture;
a foreseeable surge of activity (notably agriculture, tourism, postal services, railways, accidents);
derogations agreed in collective agreements between employers and employees.
The legislation does not apply to seafarers; nor does it apply to workers covered by more specific rules (such as mobile workers in the road transport, civil aviation, cross-border railway or inland waterway transport sectors).
EU countries may apply more favourable health and safety provisions if they wish.
When the government, not fiction writers, actually outlines which of the parts listed in bold they are going to deviate from, then I’ll beleive you @kelvin
The derogations in EU labour law , provide for a great deal of leeway on the WTD.
