| Abstract [eng] |
The Master's thesis analyses the paradigm of the legal regulation of working time, with an emphasis on its change in the law of the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania. The legal regulation of working time plays a key role in ensuring the social protection of workers and the quality of working conditions. The work reveals how the concept of working time has evolved from the humanistic aspirations of the Industrial Revolution to improve the working conditions of workers to the modern regulation based on international and European Union legal standards. The paradigm of legal regulation of working time has shifted from rigid and uniform regulation to more flexible, individualised models that take into account the needs of the worker and the nature of the work, in the face of social, technological and other global changes. The Master's thesis analyses the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has considerably extended the boundaries of working time interpretation and harmonised the basic principles of regulation in Member States. The study assesses the main trends in contemporary regulation, such as the diversity of working time regimes, the regulation of on-call time, the specificities of teleworking, the growing demand for platform work and new challenges such as the blurring of the boundaries between work and rest. The paper argues that in order to protect workers' rights in a dynamic labour market, it is necessary to consistently combine flexibility with clearly defined employee guarantees. New trends, such as the introduction of the right to disconnect, initiatives to shorten the working week and attempts to introduce platform labour regulation, suggest that working time legislation is continuing to evolve towards a more individualised model, which is oriented towards the well-being of the worker and which ensures social justice. |
