No agreement on ending long hours culture
No agreement on ending long hours culture
Attempts by the European Parliament to end the UK opt-out from parts of the working directive failed when they were unable to reach agreement with European ministers. However British and European trade unionists said they would continue to fight for adequate minimum standards on working time in Europe. ETUC General Secretary John Monks said: 'This is certainly not a victory for social Europe. We regret that it was not possible to reach an agreement that would have meant genuine social progress in Europe; for that, the individual opt-out should have clearly been put on hold and be recognised as a temporary exception that does not have its place in health and safety legislation. Also, the situation of the millions of European workers with on-call duties in sectors such as healthcare should have been properly safeguarded. Meanwhile TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said 'We are disappointed that another opportunity has been missed to end the UK's dangerous long hours culture. Long hours cause stress, illness and lowers productivity. And when many employers are moving to short-time working, the need for an opt-out of the 48 hour week is even more out of date. The UK Government still needs to tighten the law on working time, otherwise the EU could take it to court in order to protect UK workers from abuse of the 48 hour week.' In response however the government claimed that the failure to reach agreement was somehow to the benefit of workers. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: "Millions of people are better off because of the opt-out and I am relieved we have been able to resist its removal." The TUC has also published ten myths about working time that it believes have had too much influence on the debate so far.
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