Article 31 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union provides that every worker has the right to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity, to limitation of maximum working hours, to daily and weekly rest periods and to an annual period of paid leave.
(2)
Principle No 5 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed at Gothenburg on 17 November 2017, provides that, regardless of the type and duration of the employment relationship, workers have the right to fair and equal treatment regarding working conditions, access to social protection and training, and that the transition towards open-ended forms of employment is to be fostered; that, in accordance with legislation and collective agreements, the necessary flexibility for employers to adapt swiftly to changes in the economic context is to be ensured; that innovative forms of work that ensure quality working conditions are to be fostered, that entrepreneurship and self-employment are to be encouraged and that occupational mobility is to be facilitated; and that employment relationships that lead to precarious working conditions are to be prevented, including by prohibiting abuse of atypical contracts, and that any probationary period is to be of a reasonable duration.
(3)
Principle No 7 of the European Pillar of Social Rights provides that workers have the right to be informed in writing at the start of employment about their rights and obligations resulting from the employment relationship, including any probationary period; that prior to any dismissal they are entitled to be informed of the reasons and given a reasonable period of notice; and that they have the right to access to effective and impartial dispute resolution and, in the case of unjustified dismissal, a right to redress, including adequate compensation.
(4)
Since the adoption of Council Directive 91/533/EEC (4), labour markets have undergone far-reaching changes due to demographic developments and digitalisation leading to the creation of new forms of employment, which have enhanced innovation, job creation and labour market growth. Some new forms of employment vary significantly from traditional employment relationships with regard to predictability, creating uncertainty with regard to the applicable rights and the social protection of the workers concerned. In this evolving world of work, there is therefore an increased need for workers to be fully informed about their essential working conditions, which should occur in a timely manner and in written form to which workers have easy access. In order adequately to frame the development of new forms of employment, workers in the Union should also be provided with a number of new minimum rights aiming to promote security and predictability in employment relationships while achieving upward convergence across Member States and preserving labour market adaptability.
(5)
Pursuant to Directive 91/533/EEC, the majority of workers in the Union have the right to receive written information about their working conditions. Directive 91/533/EEC does not however apply to all workers in the Union. Moreover, gaps in protection have emerged for new forms of employment created as a result of labour market developments since 1991.
(6)
Minimum requirements relating to information on the essential aspects of the employment relationship and relating to working conditions that apply to every worker should therefore be established at Union level in order to guarantee all workers in the Union an adequate degree of transparency and predictability as regards their working conditions, while maintaining reasonable flexibility of non-standard employment, thus preserving its benefits to workers and employers.
(7)
The Commission has undertaken a two-phase consultation with the social partners, in accordance with Article 154 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on the improvement of the scope and effectiveness of Directive 91/533/EEC and the broadening of its objectives in order to establish new rights for workers. This did not result in an agreement among the social partners to enter into negotiations on those matters. However, as confirmed by the outcome of the open public consultations that sought the views of various stakeholders and citizens, it is important to take action at Union level in this area by modernising and adapting the current legal framework to new developments.
(8)
In its case law, the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court of Justice) has established criteria for determining the status of a worker (5). The interpretation of the Court of Justice of those criteria should be taken into account in the implementation of this Directive. Provided that they fulfil those criteria, domestic workers, on-demand workers, intermittent workers, voucher based-workers, platform workers, trainees and apprentices could fall within the scope of this Directive. Genuinely self-employed persons should not fall within the scope of this Directive since they do not fulfil those criteria. The abuse of the status of self-employed persons, as defined in national law, either at national level or in cross-border situations, is a form of falsely declared work that is frequently associated with undeclared work. Bogus self-employment occurs when a person is declared to be self-employed while fulfilling the conditions characteristic of an employment relationship, in order to avoid certain legal or fiscal obligations. Such persons should fall within the scope of this Directive. The determination of the existence of an employment relationship should be guided by the facts relating to the actual performance of the work and not by the parties’ description of the relationship.
(9)
It should be possible for Member States to provide, where justified on objective grounds, for certain provisions of this Directive not to apply to certain categories of civil servants, public emergency services, the armed forces, police authorities, judges, prosecutors, investigators or other law enforcement services, given the specific nature of the duties that they are called on to perform or of their employment conditions.
(10)
The requirements laid down in this Directive with regard to the following matters should not apply to seafarers or sea fishermen, given the specificities of their employment conditions: parallel employment where incompatible with the work performed on board ships or fishing vessels, minimum predictability of work, the sending of workers to another Member State or to a third country, transition to another form of employment, and providing information on the identity of the social security institutions receiving the social contributions. For the purposes of this Directive, seafarers and sea fishermen as defined, respectively, in Council Directives 2009/13/EC (6) and (EU) 2017/159 (7) should be considered to be working in the Union when they work on board ships or fishing vessels registered in a Member State or flying the flag of a Member State.
(11)
In view of the increasing number of workers excluded from the scope of Directive 91/533/EEC on the basis of exclusions made by Member States under Article 1 of that directive, it is necessary to replace those exclusions with a possibility for Member States not to apply the provisions of this Directive to an employment relationship with predetermined and actual working hours that amount to an average of three hours per week or less in a reference period of four consecutive weeks. The calculation of those hours should include all time actually worked for an employer, such as overtime or work supplementary to that guaranteed or anticipated in the employment contract or employment relationship. From the moment when a worker crosses that threshold, the provisions of this Directive apply to him or her, regardless of the number of working hours that the worker works subsequently or the number of working hours provided for in the employment contract.
(12)
Workers who have no guaranteed working time, including those on zero-hour and some on-demand contracts, are in a particularly vulnerable situation. Therefore, the provisions of this Directive should apply to them regardless of the number of hours they actually work.
(13)
Several different natural or legal persons or other entities may in practice assume the functions and responsibilities of an employer. Member States should remain free to determine more precisely the persons who are considered to be wholly or partly responsible for the execution of the obligations that this Directive lays down for employers, as long as all those obligations are fulfilled. Member States should also be able to decide that some or all of those obligations are to be assigned to a natural or legal person who is not party to the employment relationship.
(14)
Member States should be able to establish specific rules to exclude individuals acting as employers for domestic workers in the household from the requirements laid down in this Directive, with regard to the following matters: to consider and respond to requests for different types of employment, to provide mandatory training that is free of cost, and to provide for redress mechanisms that are based on favourable presumptions in the case of information that is missing from the documentation that is to be provided to the worker under this Directive.
(15)
Directive 91/533/EEC introduced a list of essential aspects of the employment contract or employment relationship of which workers are to be informed in writing. It is necessary to adapt that list, which Member States can enlarge, in order to take account of developments in the labour market, in particular the growth of non-standard forms of employment.
(16)
Where the worker has no fixed or main place of work, he or she should receive information about arrangements, if any, for travel between the workplaces.
(17)
It should be possible for information on the training entitlement provided by the employer to take the form of information that includes the number of training days, if any, to which the worker is entitled per year, and information about the employer’s general training policy.
(18)
It should be possible for information on the procedure to be observed by the employer and the worker if their employment relationship is terminated to include the deadline for bringing an action contesting dismissal.
(19)
Information on working time should be consistent with Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (8), and should include information on breaks, daily and weekly rest periods and the amount of paid leave, thereby ensuring the protection of the safety and health of workers.
(20)
Information on remuneration to be provided should include all elements of the remuneration indicated separately, including, if applicable, contributions in cash or kind, overtime payments, bonuses and other entitlements, directly or indirectly received by the worker in respect of his or her work. The provision of such information should be without prejudice to the freedom for employers to provide for additional elements of remuneration such as one-off payments. The fact that elements of remuneration due by law or collective agreement have not been included in that information should not constitute a reason for not providing them to the worker.
(21)
If it is not possible to indicate a fixed work schedule because of the nature of the employment, such as in the case of an on-demand contract, employers should inform workers how their working time is to be established, including the time slots in which they may be called to work and the minimum notice period that they are to receive before the start of a work assignment.
(22)
Information on social security systems should include information on the identity of the social security institutions receiving the social security contributions, where relevant, with regard to sickness, maternity, paternity and parental benefits, benefits for accidents at work and occupational diseases, and old-age, invalidity, survivors’, unemployment, pre-retirement and family benefits. Employers should not be required to provide that information where the worker chooses the social security institution. Information on the social security protection provided by the employer should include, where relevant, the fact of coverage by supplementary pension schemes within the meaning of Directive 2014/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (9) and Council Directive 98/49/EC (10).
(23)
Workers should have the right to be informed about their rights and obligations resulting from the employment relationship in writing at the start of employment. The basic information should therefore reach them as soon as possible and at the latest within a calendar week from their first working day. The remaining information should reach them within one month from their first working day. The first working day should be understood to be the actual start of performance of work by the worker in the employment relationship. Member States should aim to have the relevant information on the employment relationship provided by the employers before the end of the initially agreed duration of the contract.
(24)
In light of the increasing use of digital communication tools, information that is to be provided in writing under this Directive can be provided by electronic means.
(25)
In order to help employers to provide timely information, Member States should be able to provide templates at national level including relevant and sufficiently comprehensive information on the legal framework applicable. Those templates could be further developed at sectoral or local level, by national authorities and the social partners. The Commission will support Member States in developing templates and models and make them widely available, as appropriate.
(26)
Workers sent abroad should receive additional information specific to their situation. For successive work assignments in several Member States or third countries, it should be possible for the information for several assignments to be collated before the first departure and subsequently modified in the case of any changes. Workers who qualify as posted workers under Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (11) should also be notified of the single official national website developed by the host Member State where they are able to find the relevant information on the working conditions applying to their situation. Unless Member States provide otherwise, those obligations apply if the duration of the work period abroad is longer than four consecutive weeks.
(27)
Probationary periods allow the parties to the employment relationship to verify that the workers and the positions for which they were engaged are compatible while providing workers with accompanying support. An entry into the labour market or a transition to a new position should not be subject to prolonged insecurity. As established in the European Pillar of Social Rights, probationary periods should therefore be of a reasonable duration.
(28)
A substantial number of Member States have established a general maximum duration of probation of between three and six months, which should be considered to be reasonable. Exceptionally, it should be possible for probationary periods to last longer than six months, where justified by the nature of the employment, such as for managerial or executive positions or public service posts, or where in the interests of the worker, such as in the context of specific measures promoting permanent employment, in particular for young workers. It should also be possible for probationary periods to be extended correspondingly in cases where the worker has been absent from work during the probationary period, for instance because of sickness or leave, to enable the employer to assess the suitability of the worker for the task in question. In the case of fixed-term employment relationships of less than 12 months, Member States should ensure that the length of the probationary period is adequate and proportionate to the expected duration of the contract and the nature of the work. Where provided for in national law or practice, workers should be able to accrue employment rights during the probationary period.
(29)
An employer should neither prohibit a worker from taking up employment with other employers, outside the work schedule established with that employer, nor subject a worker to adverse treatment for doing so. It should be possible for Member States to lay down conditions for the use of incompatibility restrictions, which are to be understood as restrictions on working for other employers for objective reasons, such as for the protection of the health and safety of workers including by limiting working time, the protection of business confidentiality, the integrity of the public service or the avoidance of conflicts of interests.
(30)
Workers whose work pattern is entirely or mostly unpredictable should benefit from a minimum level of predictability where the work schedule is determined mainly by the employer, be it directly, such as by allocating work assignments, or indirectly, such as by requiring the worker to respond to clients’ requests.
(31)
Reference hours and days, which are to be understood as time slots during which work can take place at the request of the employer, should be established in writing at the start of the employment relationship.
(32)
A reasonable minimum notice period, which is to be understood as the period of time between the moment when a worker is informed of a new work assignment and the moment when the assignment starts, constitutes another necessary element of predictability of work for employment relationships with work patterns which are entirely or mostly unpredictable. The length of the notice period may vary according to the needs of the sector concerned, while ensuring the adequate protection of workers. The minimum notice period applies without prejudice to Directive 2002/15/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (12).
(33)
Workers should have the possibility to refuse a work assignment if it falls outside of the reference hours and days or if they were not notified of the work assignment in accordance with the minimum notice period, without suffering adverse consequences for this refusal. Workers should also have the possibility to accept the work assignment if they so wish.
(34)
Where a worker whose work pattern is entirely or mostly unpredictable has agreed with his or her employer to undertake a specific work assignment, the worker should be able to plan accordingly. The worker should be protected against loss of income resulting from the late cancellation of an agreed work assignment by means of adequate compensation.
(35)
On-demand or similar employment contracts, including zero-hour contracts, under which the employer has the flexibility of calling the worker to work as and when needed, are particularly unpredictable for the worker. Member States that allow such contracts should ensure that effective measures to prevent their abuse are in place. Such measures could take the form of limitations to the use and duration of such contracts, of a rebuttable presumption of the existence of an employment contract or employment relationship with a guaranteed amount of paid hours based on hours worked in a preceding reference period, or of other equivalent measures that ensure the effective prevention of abusive practices.
(36)
Where employers have the possibility to offer full-time or open-ended employment contracts to workers in non-standard forms of employment, a transition to more secure forms of employment should be promoted in accordance with the principles established in the European Pillar of Social Rights. Workers should be able to request another more predictable and secure form of employment, where available, and receive a reasoned written response from the employer, which takes into account the needs of the employer and of the worker. Member States should have the possibility to limit the frequency of such requests. This Directive should not prevent Member States from establishing that, in the case of public service positions for which entry is by competitive examination, those positions are not to be considered to be available on the simple request of the worker, and so fall outside the scope of the right to request a form of employment with more predictable and secure working conditions.
(37)
Where employers are required by Union or national law or collective agreements to provide training to workers to carry out the work for which they are employed, it is important to ensure that such training is provided equally to all workers, including to those in non-standard forms of employment. The costs of such training should not be charged to the worker or withheld or deducted from the worker’s remuneration. Such training should count as working time and, where possible, should be carried out during working hours. That obligation does not cover vocational training or training required for workers to obtain, maintain or renew a professional qualification as long as the employer is not required by Union or national law or collective agreement to provide it to the worker. Member States should take the necessary measures to protect workers from abusive practices regarding training.
(38)
The autonomy of the social partners and their capacity as representatives of workers and employers should be respected. It should therefore be possible for the social partners to consider that in specific sectors or situations different provisions are more appropriate, for the pursuit of the purpose of this Directive, than certain minimum standards set out in this Directive. Member States should therefore be able to allow the social partners to maintain, negotiate, conclude and enforce collective agreements which differ from certain provisions contained in this Directive, provided that the overall level of protection of workers is not lowered.
(39)
The public consultation on the European Pillar of Social Rights showed the need to strengthen enforcement of Union labour law to ensure its effectiveness. The evaluation of Directive 91/533/EEC conducted under the Commission’s Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme confirmed that strengthened enforcement mechanisms could improve the effectiveness of Union labour law. The consultation showed that redress systems based solely on claims for damages are less effective than systems that also provide for penalties, such as lump sums or loss of permits, for employers who fail to issue written statements. It also showed that employees rarely seek redress during the employment relationship, which jeopardises the goal of the provision of the written statement, which is to ensure that workers are informed about the essential features of the employment relationship. It is therefore necessary to introduce enforcement provisions which ensure the use of favourable presumptions where information about the employment relationship is not provided, or of a procedure under which the employer may be required to provide the missing information and may be subject to a penalty if the employer does not do so, or both. It should be possible for such favourable presumptions to include a presumption that the worker has an open-ended employment relationship, that there is no probationary period or that the worker has a full-time position, where the relevant information is missing. Redress could be subject to a procedure by which the employer is notified by the worker or by a third party such as a worker’s representative or other competent authority or body that information is missing and to supply complete and correct information in a timely manner.
(40)
An extensive system of enforcement provisions for the social acquis in the Union has been adopted since Directive 91/533/EEC, in particular in the fields of equal treatment, elements of which should be applied to this Directive in order to ensure that workers have access to effective and impartial dispute resolution, such as a civil or labour court and a right to redress, which may include adequate compensation, reflecting the Principle No 7 of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
(41)
Specifically, having regard to the fundamental nature of the right to effective legal protection, workers should continue to enjoy such protection even after the end of the employment relationship giving rise to an alleged breach of the worker’s rights under this Directive.
(42)
The effective implementation of this Directive requires adequate judicial and administrative protection against any adverse treatment as a reaction to an attempt to exercise rights provided for under this Directive, any complaint to the employer or any legal or administrative proceedings aimed at enforcing compliance with this Directive.
(43)
Workers exercising rights provided for in this Directive should enjoy protection from dismissal or equivalent detriment, such as an on-demand worker no longer being assigned work, or any preparations for a possible dismissal, on the grounds that they sought to exercise such rights. Where workers consider that they have been dismissed or have suffered equivalent detriment on those grounds, workers and competent authorities or bodies should be able to require the employer to provide duly substantiated grounds for the dismissal or equivalent measure.
(44)
The burden of proof with regard to establishing that there has been no dismissal or equivalent detriment on the grounds that workers have exercised their rights provided for in this Directive, should fall on employers when workers establish, before a court or other competent authority or body, facts from which it may be presumed that they have been dismissed, or have been subject to measures with equivalent effect, on such grounds. It should be possible for Member States not to apply that rule in proceedings, in which it would be for a court or other competent authority or body to investigate the facts, in particular in systems where dismissal has to be approved beforehand by such authority or body.
(45)
Member States should provide for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for breaches of the obligations under this Directive. Penalties can include administrative and financial penalties, such as fines or the payment of compensation, as well as other types of penalties.
(46)
Since the objective of this Directive, namely to improve working conditions by promoting more transparent and predictable employment while ensuring labour market adaptability, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the need to establish common minimum requirements, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(47)
This Directive lays down minimum requirements, thus leaving untouched Member States’ prerogative to introduce and maintain more favourable provisions. Rights acquired under the existing legal framework should continue to apply, unless more favourable provisions are introduced by this Directive. The implementation of this Directive cannot be used to reduce existing rights set out in existing Union or national law in this field, nor can it constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of protection afforded to workers in the field covered by this Directive. In particular, it should not serve as grounds for the introduction of zero-hour contracts or similar types of employment contracts.
(48)
In implementing this Directive Member States should avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Member States are therefore invited to assess the impact of their transposition act on small and medium-sized enterprises in order to ensure that they are not disproportionately affected, giving specific attention to micro-enterprises and to the administrative burden, and to publish the results of such assessments.
(49)
The Member States may entrust the social partners with the implementation of this Directive, where the social partners jointly request to do so and provided that the Member States take all the necessary steps to ensure that they can at all times guarantee the results sought under this Directive. They should also, in accordance with national law and practice, take adequate measures to ensure the effective involvement of the social partners and to promote and enhance social dialogue with a view to implementing the provisions of this Directive.
(50)
Member States should take any adequate measure to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from this Directive, for example by carrying out inspections, as appropriate.
(51)
In view of the substantial changes introduced by this Directive with regard to the purpose, scope and content of Directive 91/533/EEC, it is not appropriate to amend that directive. Directive 91/533/EEC should therefore be repealed.
(52)
In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents (13), Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified,
