On 2 March 2023, the European Court of Justice delivered a judgment in Case C-477/21, which impacts primarily Estonian employers whose employees work in shifts. According to the judgment of the Court of Justice, the daily rest period does not form part of the weekly rest period, but the daily rest period must precede the weekly rest period. This differs from the previous understanding, where a person working in shifts receives at least a consecutive rest period of 36 hours over seven days, i.e. a daily rest period of 11 hours was, according to an earlier interpretation, part of the weekly rest period.
According to the judgment of the Court of Justice, an employee must be granted both daily and weekly consecutive rest periods at least once every seven days, as follows: 11 hours + 48 hours = 59 hours for employees with normal working hours (people working from Monday to Friday) and
11 hours + 36 hours = 47 hours for employees with cumulative working time (people working in shifts). This interpretation does not influence people working from Monday to Friday, but people working on cumulative working time and in shifts. Therefore, an employer whose employees work in shifts must henceforth draw up schedules in such a way that the employee has at least 47 consecutive hours of rest over seven days.
Estonian employers have time to introduce the amendments until the end of 2023, as when conducting supervision, the Labour Inspectorate will start proceeding from the new interpretation from 1 January 2024.
It is also possible that in 2024, the Estonian Employment Contracts Act will change in such a way that the employer can proceed from the previous mandatory rest period rate. As the amendment to the law has not yet been initiated, Estonian employers must currently proceed from the new interpretation of the rest period referred to above.
If you wish to always stay on top of all regulatory changes in the Estonian business landscape, get in touch with Leinonen’s legal team.
