Rail staff

Daily rest

You should guarantee that your employees have a minimum daily home rest of 12 consecutive hours in every 24-hour period. Once every 7-day period you can reduce their daily home rest to a minimum of 9 hours. If you do so, you must add the difference between the reduced rest and 12 hours to the next daily home rest.

Your employees' minimum daily rest away from home is 8 consecutive hours per 24-hour period and must be followed by a daily home rest.

Driving time and breaks for rail drivers

Your rail drivers' shifts cannot exceed 9 hours during daytime and 8 hours during the night between 2 daily rest periods. Over a 2-week period, you must limit the driving time of your drivers to 80 hours.

You must guarantee the following breaks to your rail drivers, according to their working time:

  • If they work between 6 and 8 hours, they must have a break of at least 30 minutes
  • If they work for more than 8 hours, they must have a break of at least 45 minutes

If there is a second driver, you must follow the national rules on breaks.

Breaks for other on-board staff

For the rest of the staff working longer than 6 hours, you must guarantee a break of at least 30 minutes.

Weekly rest period

As an employer, you must ensure that your workers have a minimum uninterrupted weekly rest period of 24 hours plus 12 hours daily rest over each 7-day period. Each year your workers must have 104 rest periods of 24 hours, including the 24-hour periods of the 52 weekly rest periods, including

  • 12 double rest periods (48 hours plus a daily rest of 12 hours including Saturday and Sunday)
  • 12 double rest periods (48 hours plus a daily rest of 12 hours) without the guarantee that this will include a Saturday or Sunday

EU legislation

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Last checked: 02/04/2024
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