Battle set to hot up over rules on working time

Date: 02/03/2000

By Gareth Harding

MEPS and EU governments are steeling themselves for a month of hard bargaining over how to extend the Union's working time rules to include doctors, fishermen and some drivers.

Conciliation talks aimed at reaching a compromise between the two sides began late last week, but observers reported "little progress" and warned that negotiators would have their work cut out to strike a deal by the 6 April deadline.

At stake are the European Commission's plans to extend the EU's 1993 legislation governing working hours and rest breaks to previously excluded sectors.

The main bone of contention concerns junior doctors, whose working hours are currently not regulated. Both sides agree that the Union's 300,000 trainee doctors should not work more than 48 hours per week - the general ceiling set down in the 1993 legislation - but there are big differences between the two sides over when this target should be achieved. Governments want a transition period of 13 years, but the European Parliament favours four.

A parliamentary official said MEPs would be "willing to compromise", but only once ministers had put an offer on the table. At the very least, MEPs want to shorten the planned four-year delay before member states have to put the directive onto their statute books.

But they face an uphill struggle to persuade countries such as the UK, Ireland and Spain to agree to this. All three suffer from a shortage of doctors and showed little willingness to move from the position agreed by EU governments after protracted negotiations at last week's first formal meeting between the two law-making bodies.

Tough negotiations are also in prospect over the rules to govern road transport workers. EU governments are still locked in talks over precisely how to regulate the hours worked by long-distance lorry drivers and, while the argument continues, negotiations with the Parliament cannot begin.

But MEPs argue that, in the meantime, the planned law's provisions should apply to the Union's 2 million short-haul drivers who work primarily in the trade and construction sectors. However, most EU governments are opposed to including these workers within the scope of the directive.

However, observers noted "some progress" over maximum working hours for off-shore fisherman at last week's talks. Both the Commission and the Parliament support an average 48-hour week calculated over the course of a year, but countries with a strong fishing lobby such as Spain and Denmark favour a less-binding commitment.

The parliamentary delegation, which is led by UK Conservative MEP James Provan, has said it wants to negotiate with labour ministers rather than senior officials at future meetings of the conciliation committee.

It has also called for the talks to be wrapped up within the next six weeks.

MEPs and EU governments are steeling themselves for a month of hard bargaining over how to extend the Union's working time rules to include doctors, fishermen and some drivers. Conciliation talks aimed at reaching a compromise between the two sides have begun, but observers reported 'little progress' and warned that negotiators would have their work cut out to strike a deal by the deadline of 6.4.00.