Pfeiffer v Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Waldshut eV
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''Pfeiffer v Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Waldshut eV'' (2005
C-397/01-403/01
is an EU law and European labour law case concerning the Working Time Directive. It is relevant for the
Working Time Regulations 1998 The working time regulations 69SI 1998/1833 is a statutory instrument in UK labour law which implements the EU Working Time Directive 2003. It does not extend to Northern Ireland. Contents The Working Time Regulations create a basic set of righ ...
in UK labour law.


Facts

Workers of the German Red Cross, including Mr Pfeiffer, who served as emergency workers, doing ambulance runs claimed that a collective agreement that set their hours at 49 hours per week violated the Working Time Directive. The Red Cross contended that as emergency workers they were akin to civil servants and thus fell outside the Directive's scope.


Judgment

The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice held that workers could not be asked to work 49 hours a week by a collective agreement. They had to opt out individually. As a starting matter it held that the exception for civil servants was not applicable, holding that ‘the civil protection service in the strict sense thus defined, at which the provision is aimed, can be clearly distinguished from the activities of emergency workers tending the injured and sick which are at issue in the main proceedings.’ The ‘worker's consent must be given not only individually but also expressly and freely’.


See also

* Inequality of bargaining power * Working Time Directive *''
Allonby v Accrington and Rossendale College ''Allonby v Accrington & Rossendale College'' (2004C-256/01is a European Union law case concerning the right of men and women to equal pay for work of equal value under Article 141 of the Treaty of the European Community. Background Part-time ...
'' (2004
C-256/01
7 1 also on the dependent position of workers


Notes

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