Everyday agents · Employment · European Union
How many hours can my employees work in the EU?
- What applies?
- Average weekly working time may not exceed 48 hours including overtime; workers are entitled to 11 consecutive hours of daily rest and at least 4 weeks of paid annual leave.
- What must I do?
- Track working hours for each worker. Keep the 48-hour average over the reference period. Grant 11 hours of daily rest and a weekly rest period. Grant at least 4 weeks of paid annual leave.
- What happens if I do nothing?
- National labour inspectorates enforce the rules with penalties set in national law, and workers can claim unpaid leave and compensation.
- Who regulates this?
- National labour inspectorates in each Member State
- What is the deadline?
- The 48-hour average is calculated over a reference period of up to 4 months.
Sources
- Directive 2003/88/EC, Art. 3
- Directive 2003/88/EC, Art. 6
- Directive 2003/88/EC, Art. 7
- Directive 2003/88/EC, Art. 16(b)
Read 2026-10-14 · ID agent:eu:everyday:working-time · sha256 b7f968c6160841835cf265cf6f5cf9e5174a84afe62db06ddc9db92594c4036f
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Read next
Court decisions
- C-55/18 CCOO v Deutsche Bank SAE (Court of Justice of the EU, 2019-05-14)
Member States must require employers to set up a system that measures the daily working time of each worker.
- C-531/23 HJ v US and MU (Court of Justice of the EU, 2024-12-19)
The requirement to measure time worked also applies to domestic workers.
- C-367/23 EA v Artemis security SAS (Court of Justice of the EU, 2024-06-20)
Failure to assess the health of night workers; compensation requires proof of specific harm.
Machine readable: JSON. Not legal advice. Source: NovaCopilot.