by
At a high-level hearing organised by the European Commission (DG EMPL and DG DEFIS), CESI presented its views on the application of the Working Time Directive (WTD) to military personnel across the European Union.
Secretary General Klaus Heeger delivered a comprehensive position outlining CESI’s long-standing commitment to ensuring fair, safe and sustainable working conditions for members of the armed forces. On behalf of CESI´s Expert Commission “Security and Defence”, Walter Hirsch, Eurofedop, highlighted specific difficulties encountered by the armed forces. Both emphasised that the WTD is a fundamental health and safety instrument that fully applies to armed forces personnel, except in narrowly defined exceptional circumstances.
“Protecting the health and well-being of servicewomen and servicemen is not an obstacle to operational effectiveness — it is a prerequisite for it”, Heeger stressed during the hearing. And Walter Hirsch underlined that “the WTD is well-designed and operational, if applied consistently and correctly, also in the spirit of the case-law of the European Court of Justice”.
The CESI delegation pointed out a number of challenges observed at Member States´ level, including excessive use of exemptions, limited access to compensatory rest, a lack of systematic working-time recording, and the improper use of long reference periods. These problems do not stem from the Directive itself, but from inconsistent national implementation.
Rather than revising the WTD, CESI calls on the Commission to provide clear EU-level guidelines, strengthen monitoring and enforcement, and promote reliable, digital working-time recording systems within the armed forces. CESI also stresses the fundamental importance of a wider and more structured social dialogue in the defence sector, ensuring that representative military associations are properly involved.
The event was part of a steady and constructive dialogue between the Commission and the social partners.
A detailed written statement that CESI submitted to the European Commission on the subject matter is available here.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
Image Gallery
Hearing on the application of the Working Time Directive (WTD) in the armed forces
No items found.
Related videos
No items found.
Similar Posts
Main news
2026-08-23
CESI renews partnership with EU-OSHA for Healthy Workplaces Campaign on mental health
CESI has again been selected as an Official Campaign Partner of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), joining its 2026–2028 Healthy Workplaces Campaign themed 'Together for Mental Health at Work'. The partnership will support CESI’s work to promote the prevention of psychosocial risks and mentally healthy workplaces through awareness-raising, exchange of good practices and cooperation between workers, their representatives and employers.
Main news
2026-07-27
CESI welcomes renewed commitment to implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights
CESI welcomes the European Commission’s renewed commitment to the European Pillar of Social Rights and its emphasis on implementation and enforcement. As Europe addresses major economic and industrial challenges, strengthening competitiveness must go hand in hand with protecting workers’ rights and ensuring that existing EU social and labour rules work effectively in practice.
.png)
Main news
2026-07-27
Europe's biggest wildfires send a clear message for preparedness: we must invest in firefighting capacity
EU’s 2026 wildfire season intensified rapidly since late June, with significant incidents recorded in Portugal, France, Spain, Croatia, Germany and the United Kingdom. By 26 July, the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) had mapped approximately 344,580 hectares of burned land across the European Union in 2026, of which 147,026 hectares were recorded during the preceding week alone, highlighting the rapid escalation of the crisis.
Get in touch
with us
Confédération Européenne des Syndicats Indépendants (CESI)
Contact form
Stay up to date
Don’t miss a thing and subscribe to our newsletter
Subscribe now and receive newsletters and much more!