| Abstract [eng] |
In order to achieve the goal to encourage improvements of the health and safety at work, brought by the European Community, which was provided in the Directive 89/391/EEC, Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time was adopted. Later – in the year of 2000 and 2003 – said Directive was replaced by codified Directive 2003/88/EC. Key aspects of the directive stood unchanged but some of the important provisions such as regulation of the working time of mobile workers, extended opt-out were added. Among these and other added regulations, adding almost every sector of activities to the directive changed the scope of the directive. Short after adoption of the Working Time Directive, European Commission presented a proposal to change the directive one more time. It shall be noted, that the proposal suggested the definition of the on-call time to be added in the scope of the directive, which included definitions of on-call time and inactive part of on-call time. Unfortunately, the date of the admission of the change of the directive stays unclear. By reviewing legislation of the European Union and proposals for amendments, cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union, cases of the Lithuanian courts and the peculiarities of work and rest periods laid down in the Lithuanian national law, it is safe to conclude that most of the regulations and duration of work and rest periods as well as night work and on-call work in the Lithuanian national law is regulated in the wider extent than it is required by the Directive 2003/88/EC. However, Lithuania does not provide the application of the opt-out and it shall be considered as one of the stumbling blocks what prevent the opportunity for employees and employers to agree on more favorable work conditions and duration of working time. |
