The text below is copied word for word from Publications Office of the European Union, EUR-Lex, as it read on 18 October 2026.
Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that, in keeping with the need to protect the safety and health of workers:
(a) the period of weekly working time is limited by means of laws, regulations or administrative provisions or by collective agreements or agreements between the two sides of industry;
(b) the average working time for each seven-day period, including overtime, does not exceed 48 hours.
This is the text of Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time as it stood on 18 October 2026 (checked by Omnikit on 18 October 2026). It may have changed since; the current text is at EUR-Lex.