摘要：AbstractWith its devastating effects and decreasing profitability, the economic crisis pushes employers to ask more from workers, for the same salary.From this derives flexibility, exemptions, waivers and national options to elude the common rules established by the European legislative act. The Directive can be both a guardian for the workers, but also a tool to streamline business through crisis conditions.This paper aims to analyze the impact of the recession, on the actual time worked by employees in the EU, with the major repercussions on the employees’ health and on the other hand the labor market flexibility and competitiveness. Also, special attention is given to the working time analysis in the health sector, especially for doctors in training and those who perform excess guards. Romanian doctors havea “Soviet-style” working program mentioningthat some guards exceed 30hours. This article proposes an analysis of various member states on the following aspects: pattern of work, tendency towards a non-stop society; relativity quantification of working time, overtime rewarding;correlations between the conclusions of the European Commission and the economic crisis.
