Skip to content
Home » EU Court: Lack of overtime compensation for part-time workers is against the Directive on Part-Time Work – PAM wants to rectify the situation in the collective agreement negotiations
Press releases

20.01.2025 14:12

EU Court: Lack of overtime compensation for part-time workers is against the Directive on Part-Time Work – PAM wants to rectify the situation in the collective agreement negotiations

At the end of the summer, the European Union’s Court of Justice made a groundbreaking ruling when it concluded that the lack of overtime pay for part-time workers and the underlying legislation are against the Directive on Part-Time Work. The practice was also considered to be in breach of the Equality Directive as the majority of part-time…

Two part-time workers in Germany claimed overtime pay when their working hours exceeded the weekly working hours stipulated in their employment contract. Part-time workers were not entitled to any compensation under German law. The workers considered this to be discriminatory and against the prohibition of discrimination in the EU Framework Agreement on Part-Time Work.

The EU Court of Justice ruled in favor of the employees and stated that part-time workers are treated differently than full-time workers when they work more hours than the employment contract says without overtime compensation.

The situation is similar in Finland. According to the Finnish Working Hours Act, additional work is work that is done in addition to the employee’s agreed regular working hours and exceeds the hours stipulated in the employee’s employment contract. Additional hours are generally considered to be up to 40 hours a week, and no overtime compensation is paid for them.

– This is not an insignificant detail. In 2023, 402,000 Finns worked part-time. Out of these, a total of 107,900 people were working in the commerce sector or tourism and restaurant industry. Approximately 60 percent of all new jobs in these sectors were part-time jobs. The situation that has now been established could affect any one of them, says Annika Rönni-Sällinen, President of Service Union United PAM.

Part-time work can lead to in-work poverty

The EU Court of Justice is responsible for a uniform interpretation and application of Union law. Its decisions have a direct impact on legislation and case law, especially in situations where national legislation is in conflict with the EU law.

– In the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations this spring, we want to ensure that the collective agreements we negotiate comply with the Directive and that part-time workers are fairly compensated for hours that exceed the hours in their employment contract, says Rönni-Sällinen.

– This is in everyone’s interest, as legislative changes take time, and time goes by all the time. Judgments have a retroactive effect, states Rönni-Sällinen.

More and more people are working part-time, but the new situation could perhaps turn the tide. It could also reduce in-work poverty.

– The fact that part-time work is not only flexible but also cheaper for employers has certainly contributed to the spread of part-time work. An extra hour worked by a part-time worker is now compensated with a simple hourly wage, while a full-time worker is, in the majority of cases, paid an increased salary for any extra hours, Rönni-Sällinen says.

Keywords:

collective bargaining European union gender equality income

What did you think of this content?

Read next

Search