CCOO (Protection of the health and safety of workers - Organisation of working time - Opinion)

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court, Spain))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Social policy — Protection of the health and safety of workers — Organisation of working time — Directive 2003/88/EC — Daily rest — Weekly rest — Maximum weekly working time — Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Directive 89/391/EEC — Health and safety of workers in the workplace — Obligation for undertakings to set up a system to measure daily working time)

Is it necessary for the Member States, in order to ensure that the health and safety of workers in the workplace is fully and effectively protected — which is an objective pursued by Directive 2003/88/EC ( 2 ) by means, inter alia, of the setting of limits on working time — to make it compulsory for employers to introduce systems to measure the actual duration of the working day and working week?

I therefore consider that Directive 2003/88 precludes national legislation which fails expressly to require employers to measure in some way or other or to monitor the ordinary working time of workers in general.

‘The improvement of workers’ safety, hygiene and health at work is an objective which should not be subordinated to purely economic considerations.’