No agreement reached on the Working Time Directive
After five years of negotiations, attempts to reach agreement between Member States and the European Parliament on a revised Working Time Directive have failed on three crucial points: the opt-out, on-call time and multiple contracts.
The main obstacle has been the opt-out from the 48-hour working week. Certain Member States, including the United Kingdom, were adamant that the opt-out was of vital importance to business. In the absence of agreement the Directive as it currently stands, including the opt-out, remains in force for the foreseeable future.
It also proved impossible to reach agreement on the treatment of on-call time and those working under multiple contracts.
According to rulings by the European Court of Justice, on-call time should be regarded as working time. This position was defended by the European Parliament, in its vote on 17 December 2008. MEPs said that the proposals for revision from the Commission and the Council on the issue of on-call time went backward in comparison to ECJ rulings.
No substantive agreement on the issue of multiple contracts could be reached either. For workers covered by more than one employment contract, MEPs considered that working time should be calculated per worker and not per contract.
The proposed revised Directive will officially fail when the conciliation period comes to an end in May. It will then be for the European Commission to decide whether to introduce a new proposal for reform of the Directive.
