The basic Working Time Regulations provide for:

• a limit of an average of 48 hours a week which a worker can be required to work (though workers can choose to work more if they want to at present under the UK’s opt-out.)

• a limit of an average of 8 hours work in 24 which night workers can be required to work a right for night workers to receive free health assessments

• a right to 11 hours rest a day

• a right to a day off each week

• a right to an in-work rest break if the working day is longer than six hours

• a right to four weeks paid leave per year

Contact us for a discussion on how we can help you evaluate future deployment arrangements, and ensure they are in line with the Directive.

UC Comment on EU working time rules decision

UK working time opt-out stays   Source: BBC website - Tuesday, 7 November 2006

France, Italy and Spain have barred changes to EU working time rules because they set no date to end a UK opt-out from the 48-hour working week.

 

Ministers from the 25 EU countries were debating a proposal which would have cut the maximum hours people can work each week to 60, even after opting out.  It only contained vague words about ending the opt-out in future.

 

But the lack of a deal means that a bid to exclude doctors' "inactive" on-call time from working hours has collapsed. The BBC's Tim Franks  in Brussels says all EU member states are finding that a big burden. For Britain's National Health Service, government officials put the cost at around £200m (300m euros) a year.

 

Prosecutions

 

Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said he would now start prosecuting countries that were in breach of the directive in its original form - because of their policies on doctors' on-call time, or for other reasons. "We need to be logical... if a country does not respect the treaty we must bring proceedings against it," he said.

"We should move as fast as possible." It is reported that only two member states are currently fully in compliance.

 

The UK, as the country which has fought hardest against the amended directive over the last two-and-a-half years, could be in the front line.

 

Opt-out row

 

The European working time directive guarantees workers at least four weeks' paid annual leave, a minimum period of 11 hours' rest every 24 hours, at least one day's rest per week, and a rest break if the working day is longer than six hours. It also says night workers should work a maximum of eight hours, on average, in every 24, and entitles them to health assessments.

 

The UK has fought moves to end the opt-out, on the grounds that labour market flexibility promotes economic growth and lowers unemployment. Five countries, including France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus argue that the opt-out is bad for workers' health, and gives the UK a competitive advantage.

 

In the past, many more countries have lined up against the UK's opt-out. But at the meeting on Tuesday, most accepted a compromise put forward by Finland, the current holder of the EU presidency, which would have preserved the opt-out while placing some new restrictions on its use.

 

Finnish proposals

 

The Finnish proposals would have cut the absolute maximum working week - for people using the opt-out - from 78 hours to 60.

 

They would also have scheduled a review of the opt-out, with a view to its "gradual ending" at a later date.

 

There were reports before the meeting that the UK might have been prepared to accept the Finnish proposal if the absolute maximum working week had been set at 65 or 70 hours, and if there had been legal safeguards to prevent courts overturning the opt-out.

 

Some professions, such as company executives and emergency workers, would still have been exempt. Under the Finnish suggestion, a worker's 48-hour working week would have been averaged out over a reference period of up to 12 months, with the precise period being set by national governments.

 

This would have enabled most employers operating in markets where there are seasonal peaks to avoid violations. The maximum working week of 60 hours, for those making use of the opt-out, would have been averaged over three months.

 

 

TUC Comment on EU working time rules decision  Source:  TUC Press Release:  Tuesday, 7 November 2006

 

Commenting on the failure of the Social Affairs Council of the EU to agree today on plans to tighten up on the use of opt-outs from the 48-hour week, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

 

'This was a missed opportunity to ensure that UK workers are properly protected against the dangers of overwork. The trend in the UK is now towards a slow decline in long hours working. New legal rights would have speeded up that process without hitting economic success.

 

'Because the UK Government would not support a compromise today to phase out the UK's opt-out it is now likely to face legal action on the way that on-call time is treated in UK law.

 

'But the government is not off the hook. It is clear there is widespread ignorance of working time rights, extensive employer abuse of the opt-out and precious little enforcement of working time rules. The TUC will step up its campaign to bring the UK into line with existing EU law.

 

'Although the legal approach is not the only way to counter our long hours culture. We will continue to work with government and employers to shift the culture of UK workplaces and attack the poor productivity and work organisation that long hours working covers up.'

 

The TUC's analysis of unpublished findings from the Government's Labour Force Survey, published today showed that removing the opt-out would have had little economic effect:

 

• Only 800,000 to 1 million UK employees would have had to make a serious change to their working patterns if the opt-out was ended, but many of these work excessively long hours with at least 130,000 regularly putting in more than 60 hours a week.

• The number of UK employees working more than 48 hours has declined by 17.5 per cent since the 1998 peak of 4.0 million, 700,000 fewer employees are now working long hours.

• The incidence of long hours workers has declined in every industry, occupation and region, although the pattern of improvement is very uneven, with some sectors doing much better than others.

• Because of the growth of some jobs and industries there are more long hours workers in some of them, but even here the proportion doing long hours has fallen.

• Starting from a higher baseline, the decline of long hours working has been much sharper in the private sector.

• A third of UK employees who work more than 48 hours per week are only working one or two extra hours per week.

• Under the deal that failed today up to a million UK employees would have continued to be exempt from the 48-hour limit. These are mostly 'autonomous workers' - largely senior managers and professionals who genuinely control their own hours.

• The deal also included increasing the period for averaging the 48-hour limit from 17 weeks to 52 weeks. This would have excluded about 1.5 million UK long hours workers from the coverage of the 48-hour week, since they do not sustain their excessive working time over the full year.

[ENDS]