An important element of EU social policy has been the protection of persons in dependent employment situations by guaranteeing fair and just working conditions, Article 31 of the Charter, including the “right (of every worker) to limitation of maximum working hours, to daily and weekly rest periods and to an annual period of paid leave”. This conforms to Article 3(3) TEU on establishing a “social market economy”. Article 8 of the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of 1989 which is referred to in Article 151(1) TFEU, has similar provisions; the ECJ has on several occasions made reference to it. A prominent example to be studied here is the Working Time Directive (WTD) 2003/88/EC of 4 November 2003 (recast), and its predecessor Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time. Their controversial interpretation by the ECJ will be taken as an example (2.3–2.4).

Another area where EU law has been active is the protection of consumers as typically weaker parties to contracts with business partners (B2C). This principle is now enshrined in Article 38 of the Charter, although in rather general terms. It was already contained in the old Article 129a EEC under the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which became Article 153(2) EC of the Amsterdam Treaty and has now been transferred to Article 12 TFEU.