The Role of Working Time Guarantees in the Era of Growing Autonomy

A common claim to support the idea that labour law’s traditional working time regulations are irrelevant in the modern workplace is that workers enjoy broad autonomy over the measure and schedule of their working time. The question for labour law is whether and how to adopt traditional working time rules to settings where workers are no longer under the subordination of the employer as regards the temporal aspects of employment. The main goal of this chapter is to challenge the idea that autonomy shall displace working time guarantees. First, it will be highlighted that some level of autonomy and flexibility is present in the typical employment relationship too. Second, full work time autonomy limits the employer’s influence on the organisation of work in a level that would render the operation of most business impossible. It is of crucial importance that no workers shall be left out of the protection of working time measures who only formally enjoy autonomy.