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The Court of Justice of the European Union (“Court”) ruled that stand-by services which very significantly restrict the employee’s opportunities to have other activities, must be regarded as working time. This case concerns an employee (member of a fire service) obliged, during the stand-by duty, to respond to calls and reach his place of work within 8 minutes. He was therefore required to be physically present at a place from which he would be able to reach his place of work within the above time limit. The Court concluded that the intensity of the constraint excludes the stand-by duty to be perceived as a rest period by the employee and must therefore be regarded as working time. According to the Court, the decisive factor for “working time” is the requirement that the worker be physically present at the place determined by the employer and to be available to the employer in order to be able to provide the appropriate services immediately in case of need. Compliance with these requirements, which make it impossible to choose the place where to stay during stand-by periods, must be regarded as coming within the ambit of the performance of the worker’s duties. The situation is different where the worker performs a stand-by duty according to a stand-by system which requires that the worker be permanently accessible without being required to be present at the place of work. Even if he is at the disposal of his employer, since it must be possible to contact him, in that situation the worker may manage his time with fewer constraints and pursue his own interests. In those circumstances, only time linked to the actual provision of services must be regarded as working time and not the entire stand-by period.