For the fifth time, EU member states have failed to agree amended provisions for the opt-out from the Working Time Directive – but this time it leaves 23 countries facing court action.
The UK’s opt-out of a maximum 48-hour working week has been a source of discontent among other member states for years and after talks collapsed earlier this year, Finland said it would hold more talks under its presidency.
Finland offered a compromise deal which would have limited the use of the opt-out to certain situations and provided a review clause for its future.
But France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus all blocked the compromise, insisting the opt-out should be phased out completely within ten years. That meant the talks collapsed completely.
Enforcement of two European Court of Justice cases, which count time spent ‘on call’ on premises – even when asleep – as part of the weekly limit, will now go ahead: one of the things the talks aimed to avoid.
Describing the failure of the talks as a ‘missed opportunity’, the TUC says it will now campaign to change the UK’s long-hours culture.
It says that figures from the government’s labour force survey show that removing the opt-out would have little economic effect:
- Only 800,000 to 1 million UK employees would have to make a serious change to their working patterns if the opt-out was ended and many of these work excessively long hours
- A third of UK employees who work more than 48 hours per week are only working one or two extra hours a week
- The number of employees working more than 48 hours per week has declined by 17.5 per cent since the 1998 peak of 4 million.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “This was a missed opportunity to ensure that UK workers are properly protected against the dangers of overwork.
“The trend in the UK is now towards a slow decline in long hours working. New legal rights would have speeded up that process without hitting economic success.
“The legal approach is not the only way to counter our long hours culture. We will continue to work with government and employers to shift the culture of UK workplaces and attack the poor productivity and work organisation that long hours’ working covers up.”
CBI deputy director-general John Cridland said: “Those who have argued for the ending of the opt-out simply do not understand the realities of the modern workplace.
“The ability for individuals to opt-out from the 48-hour working week is a vital part of the UK’s flexible labour market.
“It gives employees choice in the hours they work, letting them earn extra money for their families and giving companies the flexibility they need to deliver to customers and compete in a global economy.
“The government deserves credit for standing firm and delivering on its pledge to maintain the opt-out. But this issue will come back to the table and when it does, the government needs to continue to hold its nerve.”
And a survey by Manpower indicates that UK workers support the opt-out: only 27 per cent thought the working week should be restricted to 48 hours and 43 per cent thought there should be no restrictions at all.
Equally, 29 per cent believed that the choice of how long to work should be the employee’s, 22 per cent believed that employers should set limits, and only 5 per cent believed that capping working hours was the responsibility of government legislation.
