Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-03/cp210035en.pdf

Languages available: bg es cs da de et el en fr hr it lv lt hu mt nl pl pt ro sk sl fi sv

Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 35/21

Luxembourg, 9 March 2021

Judgments in Cases C-344/19, D.J. v Radiotelevizija Slovenija, and C-580/19, RJ v Stadt Offenbach am Main

A period of stand-by time according to a stand-by system is not, in its entirety, working time unless the constraints imposed on the worker very significantly affect his or her ability to manage, during that period, his or her free time

The organisational difficulties that a period of stand-by time may entail for the worker and which are the result of natural factors or the free choice of that worker are not relevant In Case C-344/19, a specialist technician was responsible for ensuring the operation, for several consecutive days, of television transmission centres situated in the mountains in Slovenia. He provided, in addition to his twelve hours of normal work, services consisting in stand-by time, of six hours per day, according to a stand-by system. During those periods, he was not obliged to remain at the transmission centre in question, but was required to be contactable by telephone and to be able to return there within a time limit of one hour, if necessary. On the facts, due to the geographical location of the transmission centres, to which access was difficult, he was obliged to stay there while carrying out his stand-by time services, in service accommodation placed at his disposal by his employer, without many opportunities for leisure pursuits. 

(...)