C. Shift work and shift worker
The definitions of ‘shift work’ and ‘shift worker’ have been subject to only very limited interpretation by the Court. In its Simap ruling, the Court held that the working time of doctors, organised so that workers are assigned successively to the same work posts on a rotational basis, fulfils the requirements of the definition of shift work (174). In this case, the workers, doctors in public health services, normally worked from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. However, they also carried out on-call periods from 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. every 11 days. The Court held that this ‘on-call time’ at the health centre or ‘standby’ time where the workers had to be reachable at all times fulfilled the definition of shift work on the grounds that: workers were assigned successively to the same work posts on a rotational basis; and that, even if the duty is performed at regular intervals, the doctors concerned are called upon to perform their work at different times over a given period of days or weeks. In this case, the Court did not hold that the ‘normal’ work schedule of doctors amounted to shift work, possibly due to the fact that the workers then worked at the same time and in different posts (175). As pointed out in the definitions, ‘shift work’ is not limited to the well-known ‘rotating pattern’ under which employees work one set of hours for a period and then rotate to a different set of hours usually organised as three periods of 8 hours in a day. Finally, as indicated above, ‘shift workers’ may also be ‘night workers’ (176). A worker who is covered by more than one definition must benefit from the protective measures attached to each.
Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.