Work time review faces tough reception

Date: 19/09/1996

By Michael Mann

EUROPEAN Commission plans to extend the scope of the Working Time Directive to cover workers excluded in 1993 face a rocky ride.

Despite evident satisfaction in trade union circles at the latest initiative from Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn, employers are less than enthusiastic and the UK is not the only member state likely to raise objections to the plan.

The Commission said this week that a White Paper was being prepared which would consider how to extend the maximum 48-hour week to a number of sectors excluded from the current directive. Some 9 million employees in eight sectors are believed to fall outside its scope.

The Commission's paper will, however, only appear once the European Court of Justice has delivered its verdict on the UK's challenge to the original directive. This is now not expected before early October.

When the directive was agreed three years ago, workers in five transport sectors were excluded, as well as sea fishermen, oil rig workers and trainee doctors.

At the time, the UK was seen as the major obstacle standing in the way of a more wide-ranging deal. But member state officials say this was not in fact the case.

“London was not alone in pushing for all these exemptions. Each member state has a pet industry it wants kept out of the directive. The UK will not be alone in feeling uncomfortable with the latest plans,” said one.

Denmark and Greece are usually quick to oppose EU-wide social legislation in the shipping sector, and a number of member states are highly nervous of imposing any new measures on railway workers.

Likewise, many argue that the joint aviation authorities already legislate satisfactorily for the civil aviation sector.

Opponents also fear over-regulation could push large numbers of workers into self-employment, which would in practice remove them from the scope of existing EU health and safety legislation.

Commission officials stress no decision will be made on how to proceed until wide-ranging consultations with the social partners have been completed.

They say their main concern is to ensure the health and safety of workers while allowing companies sufficient flexibility to remain competitive.

“The test as to whether a worker should fall under the directive should relate to the nature of his activity, not simply the sector he is involved in,” stressed an official, adding that it was illogical for clerks in a station to be exempted from basic standards because they were part of the railway industry when they performed essentially sedentary tasks.

Pointing out that Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg and France already applied a much shorter statutory working week than that laid down in the directive, she claimed many countries felt the existing directive was “too full of holes”.

The Commission says the news that it is preparing another White Paper on the issue should come as no great surprise to anyone, as a review of the current rules was promised in last year's social affairs action programme.