EU law protects everyone under 18 at work with shorter days, longer rest, no night work and earlier breaks. Which figures apply turns on age and on school: someone under 15, or still in compulsory full-time schooling, counts as a child, and each country's own law sets the actual figures.
A young person is anyone under 18. A child is a young person under 15, or one who is still in compulsory full-time schooling; an adolescent is at least 15 and no longer in compulsory full-time schooling.12
Member states must prohibit work by children. They may allow light work from the age of 14, and for children of 13 for a limited number of hours a week in kinds of work that national law names.313
Adolescents: at most 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week.4
Children who may work: at most 2 hours on a school day and 12 hours a week in term time, outside school hours; at most 7 hours a day and 35 hours a week in a period of at least a week when school is not operating.56
No work by children between 20:00 and 06:00. No work by adolescents either between 22:00 and 06:00 or between 23:00 and 07:00.78
In every twenty-four hours, children are entitled to at least 14 hours of rest in a row and adolescents to at least 12 hours.910
In every seven-day period, a rest of at least 2 days, consecutive if possible. Where technical or organisational reasons justify it, it may be reduced, but never to less than 36 hours in a row.11
Where the daily working time is more than 4.5 hours, a break of at least 30 minutes, consecutive if possible.12
What the law of each of 31 countries says, taken from the reviewed record of that law. A country's name leads to its page, with the provision behind every figure. The list includes countries outside the EU (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), whose own laws set their figures.
| Country | Age group | Rest between two shifts | Longest working day | Longest working week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Belgium | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Bulgaria | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 7 hours | 35 hours |
| Croatia | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Cyprus | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 7.75 hours | 38 hours |
| Czechia | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Denmark | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Estonia | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Finland | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 9 hours, overtime includedThe ordinary limit, without overtime or an exception, is 8 hours | 48 hours, overtime includedThe ordinary limit, without overtime or an exception, is 40 hours |
| France | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 35 hours |
| Germany | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Greece | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Hungary | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | – |
| Iceland | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Ireland | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Italy | Ages 15–17 | – | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Latvia | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 7 hours | 35 hours |
| Lithuania | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Luxembourg | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Malta | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Netherlands | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 9 hours | 45 hours |
| Norway | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Poland | Ages 16–17 | 14 hours | 8 hours | – |
| Portugal | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Romania | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 6 hours | 30 hours |
| Slovakia | Ages 16–17 | 14 hours | 8 hours | 37.5 hours |
| Slovenia | Ages 15–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Spain | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | – |
| Sweden | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
| Switzerland | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 9 hours | 50 hours, the higher of the law's two weekly maximums45 hours in industry, offices and large retail businesses |
| United Kingdom | Ages 16–17 | 12 hours | 8 hours | 40 hours |
Before a young person gets an evening or weekend shift, check three things for their age group in their country: the hour work has to stop, the rest before the next shift, and the days off in the week.
Age alone is not enough. In many countries someone who has turned 15 but is still in compulsory schooling keeps the stricter figures of the younger group, so the rota needs to know who is still at school.
helloswap goes by the date of birth on the person's profile and applies the under-18 figures of the company's country. A shift that breaks them is not saved, with two exceptions that give a warning instead: the break and, where the law asks for consecutive days off, days off that are not next to each other. Where the law goes by schooling, a company admin or the person's manager marks the person as “Still in compulsory schooling”, and the stricter figures apply. helloswap does not check whether someone of a given age may be employed at all, or in which kind of work.
A shift that is stopped cannot be forced through, whether a manager plans it, someone takes it from the swap board or it is part of a swap.
helloswap checks the shifts that are planned in it against these figures. The employer remains responsible for keeping to the law and to any collective agreement.
Type one person's week into the free rest-rule checker and see which rules it breaks, with the figures of the country you choose. It runs in your browser and needs no account.
The directive tells member states to prohibit work by children, with exceptions: light work from 14, and at 13 for a limited number of hours in kinds of work named by national law. Each country's page gives the age its own law sets.
Under the directive, children may not work between 20:00 and 06:00, and adolescents not between 22:00 and 06:00 or, as the member state chooses, between 23:00 and 07:00. Each country's page gives its own hours.
Yes. The directive counts anyone still in compulsory full-time schooling as a child, whatever their age under 18, and many national laws follow that line.
The numbers in the text point to the provisions below. The links go to the official text.
Guides to the rules
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