Notice for the OJ

 

Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Conseil d'État by order of that Court of 3 December 2003 in the case of Abdelkader Dellas, Confédération générale du travail, Fédération nationale des syndicats des services de santé et des services sociaux CFDT and Fédération nationale de l'action sociale Force Ouvrière against Secrétariat général du gouvernement; Intervener: Union des fédérations et syndicats nationaux d'employeurs sans but lucratif du secteur sanitaire, social et médico-social

(Case C-14/04)

Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the European Communities by order of the Conseil d'État (Council of State) of 3 December 2003, received at the Court Registry on 15 January 2004, for a preliminary ruling in the case of Abdelkader Dellas, Confédération générale du travail, Fédération nationale des syndicats des services de santé et des services sociaux CFDT and Fédération nationale de l'action sociale Force Ouvrière against Secrétariat général du gouvernement; Intervener: Union des fédérations et syndicats nationaux d'employeurs sans but lucratif du secteur sanitaire, social et médico-social (Union of national federations and unions of non-profit-making employers in the health, social and medico-social sectors) on the following questions:

In the light of the purpose of the Working Time Directive¹, namely to lay down minimum safety and health requirements for the organisation of working time, as set out in Article 1(1) thereof, must the definition of working time set out in the directive be considered to apply exclusively to the Community thresholds established by the directive or must it be considered to have general scope, applying also to the thresholds which, while adopted under the various national legal orders with a view to transposing the directive, may in fact be set - as they have been in France in the interest of employee protection - at a level affording greater protection than the thresholds established by the directive?

To what extent could a strictly proportional system of equivalence, which involves calculating the total number of hours in attendance before applying a weighting mechanism to them which reflects even the very least work-intensive periods during periods of inactivity, be considered compatible with the objectives of the Working Time Directive?

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¹ - Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time (OJ L 307 of 13.12.1993, p. 18).