Move to end truckers’ hours row

Date: 15/06/2000

By Renée Cordes

THE European Commission is backtracking on one of the most contentious elements of planned new rules to govern truckers' working hours in the hope of ending a two-year deadlock over the issue.

A draft report by transport chief Loyola de Palacio set to be adopted by the full Commission next Wednesday (21 June) suggests excluding self-employed drivers from the scope of the proposed regulations for now. The move is designed to pacify those member states which had objected fiercely to the Commission's original plan to include them but will anger France, which insists that the new rules must be applied to all lorry drivers.

In a bid to win over the French, De Palacio will also propose a far-reaching package of measures aimed at improving social conditions for road hauliers such as better enforcement of existing rules governing driving and rest times, new minimum training standards and legislation which would require road haulage firms to pay drivers from non-EU countries the same wages as employees from Union member states.

"We could have left this matter in the Council of Ministers waiting for another ten years," said a Commission spokesman. "But we were asked by member states to try to find a solution. We see this is as a good opportunity to have a wider view."

If the plan is approved by the full Commission, as expected, officials will begin talks with employers and employee representatives on a revised proposal "immediately".

De Palacio's officials hope that the proposed package of accompanying measures will be enough to pacify Paris, which has vowed to give social policy issues a high priority during its EU presidency. "The hope is that if the French are able to make sufficient progress elsewhere on social issues, they might make a sacrifice on one," said one Union diplomat.

But there are fears that the Commission's compromise approach could be rejected by other member states which have until now sided with the French in calling for self-employed drivers to be included within the rules. "There are still as many countries in favour as against excluding self-employed drivers. Whether changing styles now is going to really allow progress in the Council is another question," said Wim Smolders of the International Road Transport Union.

The Commission's move has also sparked concern among European trade unions. "For us it is a real problem to exclude self-employed drivers," said Sabine Trier of the European Transport Workers Federation, who added the accompanying package of measures set to be proposed by De Palacio was "quite weak".

The battle over truckers' hours began more than two years ago when the Commission unveiled its proposals for bringing a range of 'excluded' sectors within the scope of the Union's 1993 working time rules. Governments have since reached agreements on junior doctors' and oil-rig workers' hours, but it was clear from the start that clinching a deal on rules for the road-haulage sector would pose the most difficult challenge.

Member states with a large number of 'owner-drivers' such as the UK and Finland fear that hundreds of small road hauliers would be driven out of business if they were forced to comply with the directive.

But France, which has a strongly unionised road transport sector staffed mainly by employee drivers, argues that independent truckers would be given an unfair advantage if they were excluded from the rules.

The European Commission is backtracking on one of the most contentious elements of planned new rules to govern truckers' working hours in the hope of ending a two-year deadlock over the issue.