11.5.2020

Official Journal of the European Union

C 161/37

(Case C-104/20)

(2020/C 161/49)

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: SD

Defendants: Habitations sociales du Roman Païs SCRL, TE, acting as liquidator in the insolvency of Régie des Quartiers de Tubize ASBL

Questions referred

Must Articles 3, 5 and 6 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, (1) read in the light of Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and Articles 4(1), 11(3) and 16(3) of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, (2) to the extent that they preclude the legislation of a Member State that does not require employers to set up a system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured (judgment of 14 May 2019, CCOO, C-55/18, EU:C:2019:402), be interpreted as precluding national legislation, in the present case Article 1315 of the Belgian Civil Code, which requires a party claiming performance of an obligation to prove that the obligation exists, where that legislation fails to establish that the burden of proof is reversed where workers claim to have exceeded their normal working time and where:

—that national legislation, in the present case the Belgian legislation, does not require employers to set up a reliable system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured; and

—the employer has not spontaneously set up such a system,

—so that it is impossible in practice for a worker to demonstrate that he has exceeded normal working time?

(1) OJ 2003, L 299, p. 9.

(2) OJ 1989, L 183, p. 1.