UK under pressure on working time

Ministers from EU states are meeting in Luxembourg to discuss changes to a European law governing workers' hours, holidays and rest periods.

The UK is leading a group of countries which want to preserve an opt-out from the EU's 48-hour working week.

The Austrian EU presidency has proposed a compromise, said to allow workers to continue opting out, but giving them a chance to change their mind each year.

A UK government spokesman said the UK was hoping to get a deal.

Diplomatic sources in Luxembourg said the ministers had discussed the question over lunch, without reaching a solution.

The discussion is expected to continue until late at night.

Opt-out 'exception'

During its presidency of the EU, in the second half of 2005, the UK suggested introducing a "cooling-off" period during which workers who opted to work more than 48 hours would be able to change their minds.

It also proposed setting up a system allowing workers to report abuses of the opt-out in confidence.

However, France and Sweden wanted a firm date to be named for the opt-out to be scrapped.

Media reports say that Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla is in favour of the "cooling-off" idea and that he wants the working time directive to make clear that the 48-hour week is the rule and the opt-out is the exception.

UK-led bloc

Voting on the issue is taken by qualified majority.

Last year, a member of the European Parliament said the UK, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Malta and Germany were in favour of preserving the opt-out - sufficient to keep it in place, assuming no defections.

The European Parliament voted in May 2005 to abolish it.

The working time directive was originally adopted in 1993.

Among other things, it guarantees at least four weeks' paid annual leave; a minimum period of 11 hours' rest every 24 hours, and one day a week; a rest break if the working day is longer than six hours; and a maximum of eight hours' night work, on average, in each 24.