The European Commission has opened a consultation on working time with a view to future revision of the legislation.
It is concerned about the definition and calculation of working time and of the “opt-out”, which allows individuals to waive their rights under the Working Time Directive.
More Member States are making use of the opt-out following recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings, and the Commission is concerned that workers are frequently asked to sign the opt-out agreement at the same time as signing their employment contract, which it believes acts as a constraint to freedom of choice.
Anna Diamantopoulou, Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, said: “We appreciate the importance of freedom of choice of individuals as to how they work but in practice the measures that the directive foresees to safeguard the workers’ interests when opting out are not properly implemented. We need to find a solution that balances the interests of all concerned.”
The consultation asks for responses on 5 main issues:
The TUC welcomed the working time review. Late last year, it presented a dossier of evidence to Anna Diamantopoulou, calling on Europe to end the UK’s opt-out from the Working Time Directive and stop the UK counting bank holidays against Europe’s four weeks’ minimum paid holiday rights.
The consultation can be found here and the deadline for responses is 31 March 2004.
