EU work law talks hit stalemate

Since 2004 junior doctors have started to benefit from the directive

Talks to let the UK continue opting out from the European Union's 48-hour working week have hit a stalemate.

The UK Government wants to maintain the rights of workers to put in more hours if they wish to do so.

But no agreement was struck on the future of the Working Time Directive, which Austria had hoped to resolve under its presidency.

Talks on the measures will now not resume until after Finland takes over the role in July.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alastair Darling said talks had hit an impasse.

"We could not agree a text saying that we will phase out the opt-out," he said.

"I am encouraged that we should continue to retain it - and that an increasing number of countries are using it."

Genuine choice

The government's stand in favour of continuing with the opt-out was supported by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

"Working excessively long hours is not to be encouraged, and can bring problems for employers and employees," said the CIPD's Mike Emmott.

"But existing protection under the Working Time Directive has removed the vast majority of the element of compulsion in long-hours working.

"Most people who work long hours genuinely choose to do so."

A CIPD survey in 2004, of 750 workers who work for longer than 48 hours a week, found that more than three quarters did so by their own choice.

The directive

The European Working Time Directive entered UK law in 1998, and was aimed at restricting the ability of employers to exploit their staff and force them to work excessively long hours.

One of its main features was a ceiling of an average 48 hours being worked per week.

Among the others were :

• 11 hours rest a day and a right to a day off each week
• a right to a rest break if the working day is longer than six hours
• four weeks paid leave each year.

The UK was one of a small number of countries which adopted a so-called "opt-out".

This let individuals work more than an average of 48 hours a week, if they agreed to it.

Last year the European Parliament voted to phase out the exception over the first three years following the introduction of a new directive.

Before that, in September 2004, the European Commission had suggested leaving the opt-out in place but making it more difficult for employers to press staff into working more than 48 hours against their will.

The commission wanted to restrict the rights of individuals to agree personal opt-outs, as well as making such deals subject to agreement between employers and trade unions, where they were recognised.

Rearguard action

However, the UK government has been engaged in a rear-guard action, supported by some other European countries, to keep the opt-out as it is.

Since it was first introduced in the UK the scope of the working time directive has changed.

In 2004, for instance, junior doctors in the UK were brought into the scope of the directive, with a limit of 58 hours a week till 31 July 2007.