Rough ride ahead over truckers’ working hours

Date: 11/12/1997

FINDING a formula for updating working time rules for lorry drivers which will win the support of EU governments is set to provide the European Commission with a major headache.

Road transport is by far the largest sector currently excluded from the 1993 Working Time Directive and it will be the most difficult area in which to get agreement on new rules.

In the summer, Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn issued a White Paper in which he called on employers, employees and national administrations to submit their ideas for extending the scope of the directive to cover all of the 'excluded sectors'. These include employees in the shipping and airline industries, workers on offshore oil platforms and trainee doctors as well as truckers.

Flynn set out four options, ranging from voluntary self-regulation of the sectors involved to obliging them all to comply with the 1993 directive.

He said that his own preference would be for a 'differentiated' approach, applying the existing directive where appropriate but allowing for alternative systems to be drawn up in specific cases.

EU employers' federation UNICE is opposed to this approach and favours self-regulation.

However, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and most member states broadly agree with Flynn's preferred strategy.

While it seems likely that the differentiated approach will win the day, the real problem will arise when it comes to drawing up the specific arrangements for truck drivers.

The Commission has said that it will put forward its plans for revising the 1985 EU regulation covering lorry drivers' working hours in early 1998.

“We are looking to provide, in particular, new working time-limits on driving, loading, unloading and the like,” said Flynn in a recent speech to European transport unions.

In the wake of the recent truck drivers' strike, France put forward its own plan for updating the 1985 rules which was discussed by transport ministers this week.

However, many member states, notably Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Portugal are opposed to any attempt to lay down rules about working - rather than simply driving - time in the transport sector.

They argue that such rules would be detrimental to many of the Union's self-employed truck drivers. The Working Time Directive does not cover the self-employed, but the driving time regulation applies to all truck drivers.