Ministers set for tough negotiations on EU working time

EU employment ministers are set to meet in Brussels on Tuesday in an attempt to break a two-year deadlock on the Working Time Directive.

They will discuss a new proposal tabled by the Finnish EU presidency, particularly on the controversial questions of on-call time and the UK’s opt-out.

The Finnish proposal would allow employees to work up to 60 hours a week instead of the current 48 hours, but only over a three-month period instead of 12 months.

The Finns also want to set much stricter conditions for the UK’s opt-out clause from the maximum number of working hours, and eventually phase out the clause.

But the negotiations promise to be tricky, with the UK determined to keep its opt-out.

The UK is supported by Germany and Poland as well as several other EU-10 countries.

Meanwhile, France has led the opposition to the UK’s opt-out, along with Spain and Italy – arguing that the clause is unfair competition for other countries and that there must be a fixed end date to it.

Another thorny issue is the question of whether “on-call” time by doctors and other professionals should be counted as normal working hours.

The need for agreement on the dossier has become all the more urgent following a ruling by the European court of justice that time spent ‘on- call’ should count towards the 48-hour limit.

With a large majority of EU countries currently excluding on-call time from the 48-hour limit, the ruling could have potential repercussions throughout the EU if ministers fail to reach agreement.

The Finnish proposal suggests a system whereby the inactive part of a doctor’s on-call time is no longer entirely considered working time.

This is supported by representatives of British local government – spokesman David Rogers said that “time spent on call at the workplace should be removed from calculations of working time”.

“At the moment, in sectors such as care homes where sleep-ins are common, this is threatening social care budgets with extra staffing costs and preventing councils from securing an ever better deal for taxpayers,” he argued.

As France is likely to be one of the countries hardest-hit by the court’s decision, Finland hopes the conditions for a deal will be better than the last time the dossier was discussed, under the Austrian presidency. 

While the UK wants changes to the Finnish proposal and is determined to keep its opt-out, it has made it clear that it is willing to negotiate - with the need to resolve the on-call issue its main bargaining chip.

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