Employers are prohibited from making the same employee work more than six days per week.
But what does “week” mean in this context? The calendar week, from Monday at midnight to Sunday at midnight inclusive? Or a rolling week, i.e. any period of seven consecutive days?
In the first case (calendar week), an employee may be required to work more than 6 days as long as they are granted at least one day off during each of the two following calendar weeks.
In the second scenario (rolling week), an employee may not work beyond the legal limit of 6 days if the passage of 7 consecutive days, regardless of their position in the calendar, results in a week consisting of 6 working days and one day of rest.
In its judgment of 9 November 2017 (ECJ, 9 November 2017, Maio Marques da Rosa, C-306/16), the ECJ ruled that “Article 5 of Directive 93/104 and the first paragraph of Article 5 of Directive 2003/88 must be interpreted as not requiring the minimum uninterrupted weekly rest period of 24 hours to which a worker is entitled to be provided no later than the day following a period of six consecutive working days, but requires that rest period to be provided within each seven-day period. ” (point 51) In practice, this amounts to allowing employers to require an employee to work more than six consecutive days during two successive seven-day periods.
The ruling of 13 November 2025 uses the calendar week as its definition. Thus, an employee may work more than six consecutive days before their weekly rest period.
