Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union, CHAPTER I — GENERAL PROVISIONS (Article 1–Article 3) — Full Text

Purpose, subject matter and scope

Article 1

1. The purpose of this Directive is to improve working conditions by promoting more transparent and predictable employment while ensuring labour market adaptability. 2. This Directive lays down minimum rights that apply to every worker in the Union who has an employment contract or employment relationship as defined by the law, collective agreements or practice in force in each Member State with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice. 3. Member States may decide not to apply the obligations in this Directive to workers who have an employment relationship in which their predetermined and actual working time is equal to or less than an average of three hours per week in a reference period of four consecutive weeks. Time worked with all employers forming or belonging to the same enterprise, group or entity shall count towards that three-hour average. 4. Paragraph 3 shall not apply to an employment relationship where no guaranteed amount of paid work is predetermined before the employment starts. 5. Member States may determine which persons are responsible for the execution of the obligations for employers laid down by this Directive as long as all those obligations are fulfilled. They may also decide that all or part of those obligations are to be assigned to a natural or legal person who is not party to the employment relationship. This paragraph is without prejudice to Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 14 ) . 6. Member States may provide, on objective grounds, that the provisions laid down in Chapter III are not to apply to civil servants, public emergency services, the armed forces, police authorities, judges, prosecutors, investigators or other law enforcement services. 7. Member States may decide not to apply the obligations set out in Articles 12 and 13 and in point (a) of Article 15(1) to natural persons in households acting as employers where work is performed for those households. 8. Chapter II of this Directive applies to seafarers and sea fishermen without prejudice to Directives 2009/13/EC and Directive (EU) 2017/159, respectively. The obligations set out in points (m) and (o) of Article 4(2), and Articles 7, 9, 10 and 12 shall not apply to seafarers or sea fishermen.

Definitions

Article 2

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply: (a) ‘work schedule’ means the schedule determining the hours and days on which performance of work starts and ends; (b) ‘reference hours and days’ means time slots in specified days during which work can take place at the request of the employer; (c) ‘work pattern’ means the form of organisation of the working time and its distribution according to a certain pattern determined by the employer.

Provision of information

Article 3

The employer shall provide each worker with the information required pursuant to this Directive in writing. The information shall be provided and transmitted on paper or, provided that the information is accessible to the worker, that it can be stored and printed, and that the employer retains proof of transmission or receipt, in electronic form.