In 2018, the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs came up with idea of introducing a new category of employee – the autonomous employee – in Estonia. This concept is based on Article 17(1) of the Working Time Directive, which allows derogations from the scope of the Directive for managing executives or other persons with autonomous decision-taking powers. The implementation of the concept of the autonomous employee has been seen as a panacea that makes the organisation of working time more flexible and the regulation relevant to practical needs. However, according to the case law of the European Court of Justice, the scope of Article 17(1) is very narrow. The article examines the concept of the autonomous employee, the nature and organisation of autonomous work, mainly based on EU law, as well as the Finnish Working Hours Act and amendments to the Estonian Sports Act, both of which entered into force in 2020.

2018年，爱沙尼亚社会事务部提出了在爱沙尼亚引入一种新的员工类别（即自主员工）的想法。此概念基于《工作时间指令》第17（1）条，该条允许管理高管或其他具有自主决策权的人员从指令范围内减损。自主员工概念的实施被视为万能药，它使工作时间的组织更加灵活，并且法规与实际需求相关。但是，根据欧洲法院的判例法，第17条第1款的范围非常狭窄。本文主要根据欧盟法律，研究了自主员工的概念，自主工作的性质和组织，