Council Directive 2005/47/EC of 18 July 2005 on the Agreement between the Community of European Railways (CER) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) on certain aspects of the working conditions of mobile workers engaged in interoperable cross-border services in the railway sector
Date: 2005-07-18
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: collective agreement, cross-border transport, labour law, rail transport, social dialogue (EU), transport staff, working conditions, working time

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COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2005/47/EC

of 18 July 2005

on the Agreement between the Community of European Railways (CER) and the European
Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) on certain aspects of the working conditions of mobile
workers engaged in interoperable cross-border services in the railway sector

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

persons working in the rail transport sector on board
trains.

Having regard to the Treaty
Community, and in particular Article 139(2) thereof,

establishing the European

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas:

This Directive complies with the fundamental rights and
principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights
of the European Union and is designed to ensure full
compliance with Article 31 thereof, which provides
to healthy, safe and
that all workers have the right
dignified working conditions,
limit on their
maximum working time and to weekly and daily rest
periods and an annual period of paid holidays.

to a

in accordance with Article
The social partners may,
139(2) of the Treaty,
jointly request that Agreements
concluded at Community level be implemented by a
Council Decision on a proposal from the Commission.

Council

93/104/EC

of
adopted Directive
The
23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the
organisation of working time (1). Rail transport was one
of the sectors of activity excluded from the scope of that
Directive. The European Parliament and the Council
adopted Directive 2000/34/EC (2) amending Directive
93/104/EC in order to cover the sectors and activities
which had previously been excluded.

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

The Community of European Railways (CER) and the
European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) have
informed the Commission of their desire to enter into
negotiations in accordance with Article 139(1) of the
Treaty.

On 27 January 2004 those organisations concluded an
Agreement on certain aspects of the working conditions
of mobile workers engaged in interoperable cross-border
services, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’.

included a

The Agreement
the
Commission to implement the Agreement by a Council
Decision on a proposal
from the Commission in
accordance with Article 139(2) of the Treaty.

request

joint

for

Directive 2003/88/EC applies to mobile workers engaged
in interoperable cross-border services, except where more
specific provisions are contained in this Directive and in
the Agreement annexed thereto.

(10)

For the purposes of Article 249 of the Treaty, the appro-
priate instrument for implementing the Agreement is a
Directive.

The European Parliament and the Council adopted
Directive 2003/88/EC of 4 November 2003 concerning
certain aspects of the organisation of working time (3),
which codified and repealed Directive 93/104/EC.

(11)

Directive 2003/88/EC provides
Articles 3, 4, 5, 8 and 16 thereof

for derogations

from
in the case of

(1) OJ L 307, 13.12.1993, p. 18. Directive as amended by Directive

2000/34/EC.

(2) OJ L 195, 1.8.2000, p. 41.
(3) OJ L 299, 18.11.2003, p. 9.

achieved by

Since, in the light of completion of the internal market in
transport sector and the competition in the
the rail
sector,
this Directive, which is
the objectives of
intended to protect health and safety, cannot be suffi-
and can
ciently
the
therefore be better achieved at Community level,
Community may adopt measures,
in accordance with
the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of
the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of propor-
tionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not
go beyond what is necessary to achieve those objectives.

the Member States

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

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the European railways

sector
The development of
requires close monitoring of
the role of current and
new actors, in order to ensure harmonious development
throughout
European social
dialogue in this field should be able to reflect this devel-
opment and to take it into account as far as possible.

the Community. The

(20)

In accordance with paragraph 34 of the Interinstitutional
agreement on better law-making (1), Member States will
be encouraged to draw up, for themselves and in the
interest of
their own tables, which
will, as far as possible, illustrate the correlation between
this Directive and the transposition measures and to
make them public,

the Community,

This Directive leaves the Member States free to define
those terms of the Agreement that it does not specify
in accordance with national legislation and practice, as is
the case for other Directives on social policy matters
using similar terms, as long as the definitions used are
compatible with the Agreement.

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

The Commission has prepared its proposal
for a
Directive in accordance with its Communication of
20 May 1998 entitled ‘Adapting and promoting social
dialogue at Community level’, taking into account the
representative status of the contracting parties and the
legality of each clause of the Agreement; the signatories
are sufficiently representative of
the mobile railway
workers assigned to interoperable cross-border services
run by the railway companies.

for a
The Commission has drawn up its proposal
the
Directive in accordance with Article 137(2) of
in the social
Treaty, which provides that Directives
domain shall avoid imposing administrative,
financial
and legal constraints in a way which would hold back
the creation and development of small and medium-sized
undertakings.

(16)

This Directive and the Agreement lay down minimum
standards; the Member States and/or the social partners
should be able to maintain or introduce more favourable
provisions.

(17)

The Commission has informed the European Parliament,
the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions by sending them the proposal
for a Directive for implementing the Agreement.

(18)

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the
Agreement of the social partners on 26 May 2005.

The purpose of this Directive is to implement the Agreement
concluded on 27 January 2004 between the Community of
European Railways
European Transport
and
Workers’ Federation (ETF) on certain aspects of the working
conditions of mobile workers engaged in interoperable cross-
border services.

(CER)

the

The text of the Agreement is annexed to this Directive.

Article 2

1. Member
introduce more
favourable provisions than those laid down by this Directive.

States may maintain or

The implementation of

this Directive shall under no
2.
circumstances constitute sufficient grounds
justifying a
for
reduction in the general level of protection of workers in the
fields covered by this Directive. This shall be without prejudice
to the rights of Member States and/or management and labour
to lay down, in the light of changing circumstances, different
regulatory or contractual arrangements to those
legislative,
prevailing at
this Directive,
the adoption of
provided always that the minimum requirements laid down in
this Directive are complied with.

the time of

Article 3

Without prejudice to the provisions of the Agreement on the
follow-up and evaluation by the signatories, the Commission
shall, after consulting management and labour at European
level, report to the European Parliament and the Council on
the implementation of this Directive in the context of the devel-
opment of the railways sector, before 27 July 2011.

(19)

Implementing the Agreement will contribute to achieving
the aims set out in Article 136 of the Treaty.

(1) OJ C 321, 31.12.2003, p. 1.

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Article 4

Member States shall determine what penalties are applicable
when national provisions enacted pursuant
to this Directive
are infringed and shall take all necessary measures to ensure
they are implemented. The penalties must be effective,
that
proportionate and dissuasive. Member States shall notify these
provisions to the Commission by 27 July 2008 and any
subsequent amendments thereto in good time.

Article 5

Member States shall, after consultation with the social partners,
bring into force the laws,
regulations and administrative
provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 27 July
2008 or shall ensure that the social partners have adopted the
necessary provisions by means of an Agreement by that date.
They shall immediately forward the text of the provisions to the
Commission.

Member States shall take all necessary measures to enable them
to guarantee at any time the outcome required by this Directive
and shall inform the Commission thereof immediately.

When Member States adopt these measures, they shall contain a
reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such
reference on the occasion of
their official publication. The
methods of making such reference shall be laid down by
Member States.

Article 6

This Directive shall enter into force on the date of its publi-
cation in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Article 7

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 18 July 2005.

For the Council
The President

M. BECKETT