Finns fail to secure working-time overhaul

The European Commission is gearing up to take legal action against member states over their failure to implement EU rules on working time after Finland failed to secure agreement on a revision of the law.

Finnish Labour Minister Tarja Filatov presented a compromise text to revise the working time directive at an extraordinary meeting of employment ministers on Tuesday (7 November). But her attempt to break a deadlock in the Council of Ministers was blocked by a coalition of France, Italy, Cyprus, Spain and Greece.

The proposal would have allowed the UK to retain its opt-out, obtained in 1993, under stricter conditions. Filatov had proposed that the present cap of 65 hours per week on average over a period of three months be reduced by five hours. A phasing-out of the opt-out was also mooted.

According to one Swedish diplomat, the Commission is now expected to take a harder line with the 23 member states failing to comply with the directive. "We are going to implement the directive in January. We are going to implement it and it will cause problems," the diplomat said, referring to shortages of health employees that will be caused by compliance with rules stating that on-call time should be within working time limits of 48 hours per week.

The German government, too, will hasten to ensure its laws are in line with EU legislation, although another diplomat claimed the Commission lacked the legal basis to mount a successful challenge. "My question is, do they really want to find a solution or do they want to name and shame?" asked the diplomat.

Amid speculation that the issue might be raised again, either at next month’s meeting of employment ministers or at the European Council on 14-15 December, the mood among Finnish officials was pessimistic. "This proposal is totally dead," said one official.

A UK diplomat expressed disappoint-ment that the Finnish proposal will not be revisited. "They’ve said that the agenda is full and that they can’t discuss it, but there’s got to be a solution. Their proposal was definitely moving in the right direction."

The European Commission is gearing up to take legal action against member states over their failure to implement EU rules on working time after Finland failed to secure agreement on a revision of the law.