Considerations regarding the inclusion in working time of periods during which the worker participates in team building activities

Abstract

Team building activities are often combined with professional training activities or purely recreational activities. For this reason, the legal regime of these activities can be unclear and difficult to determine, with multiple implications in the relationship between employer and employee. The article examines the issue of the existence of the subordination relationship specific to labor law in the period affected by team-building activities and the meeting of the constitutive elements of the notion of working time. For this purpose, a multidisciplinary examination is carried out, namely of the fiscal regime of the expenses incurred by the employer for the organization of these activities, of the criminal liability for events that occurred on this occasion and of the incidence of the rules regarding work accidents, illustrated with jurisprudential examples and taking into account the jurisprudence of the CJEU regarding Directive 2003/88/EC. Concluding, given the conditions in which team-building activities are imposed on employees by the employer, under the aspects of the period, place, and way of organization, pursuing a specific goal of improving labor relations, the workers being at the disposal of the employer, without being able to freely dispose of the time declared as rest time and to devote themselves to their own interests, the time allocated to these activities should be considered working time within the meaning of Directive 2003/88, so only for the purpose of protecting health and safety at work.