The European Parliament yesterday (17 December) voted to scrap national opt-outs to the Working Time Directive and enforce an EU-wide maximum working week of 48 hours, in open defiance of a group of member states led by the UK.
Yesterday’s second-reading vote, passed with an absolute majority of 421 votes to 273, means that the long-running debacle over the European Working Time Directive is set to continue.
The chairman of the European Parliament’s employment committee, Swedish Socialist MEP Jan Andersson, told EURACTIV that the vote entailed “very positive things” for both the Parliament and European workers.
“We have to phase out these opt-outs,” Andersson said. “This decision is good for the health of European workers [and] good for equality between men and women, and I think that in the current economic situation – where many workers have lost their jobs and even more will follow – it will ensure that some people don’t end up working 65 hours a week while others have no job at all.”
The foundations for yesterday’s vote were laid in October when the employment committee, in a first-reading vote, chose to eliminate opt-outs from the agreed EU-wide 48-hour working week.
The Parliament’s position also stipulates that any period of on-call time, including inactive time, must count as working time, whereas governments and the European Commission favour the concept of “active” on-call time (a period during which the worker must be available at the workplace in order to work when required by the employer) and “inactive” on-call time (a period when the worker is on call but is not required by his employer to work).
In response, national governments and the Commission maintained their position that certain opt-outs should be allowed.
Working Time Directive: Polarising Europe since 1993
The debate over EU rules on working hours has been provoking controversy and entrenched political polarisation in the EU since the first directive was adopted in 1993. The latest round of votes and negotiations is no exception.
Those opposing the opt-out argue that it will lead to social dumping and will harm health and safety at work, as well as people’s ability to reconcile work and family life. Spanish Socialist MEP Alejandro Cercas, who drafted the report on which the Parliament voted yesterday, said the vote safeguarded the concept of “working to live and not living to work,” adding: “We cannot go backwards.”
In the opposing camp, those favouring the opt-out argue that it increases flexibility in labour markets, particularly in difficult economic times. Business federations, in particular, have long argued that the opt-out is an important tool for companies to deal with fluctuations in demand.
Open Europe, a London-based think tank, estimates that ending the opt-out could cost the UK economy between £47.74 billion and £66.45 billion by 2020.
The organisation’s research director Mats Persson argued that MEPs had made “the worst possible decision at the worst possible time”.
“Ending the opt-out,” claimed Persson, “would strip both workers and firms of vital flexibility. The European Parliament seems hell-bent on crippling Europe’s economy even at a time of recession”.
UK divided
Of all EU member states, the UK remains the most prominent in this debate. The opt-out to the 48-hour week rule was, of course, originally inserted at the behest of the British government and has attracted the support of successive UK administrations.
It is expected that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not back down on the opt-out issue, despite the intriguing fact that a majority of Labour MEPs voted against their prime minister in yesterday’s vote.
“I think it’s absolutely incredible that the UK government can’t get Labour MEPs to support it,” British liberal MEP Elizabeth Lynne told EURACTIV.
Lynne, herself a vice-chairperson of the Parliament’s employment committee, also supports the opt-out and said she had worked with labour ministers and officials to try and persuade Labour MEPs to support it, but “could not get them on board”. “They tend to take the European Socialist line on these matters rather than their own government’s line.”
Nevertheless, UK Minister for Employment Relations Pat McFadden said the vote was “not the end of the story”. “This is the latest step in a complex negotiation between the European Parliament and the Member States, and the UK Government will continue to defend the opt-out in the next phase,” he added.
Last chance saloon: What happens next?
The directive will now go to a conciliation committee, the ‘last-chance saloon’ of Council-Parliament negotiations. However, the Parliament enters negotiations from a position of strength. “We are ready for negotiations with the Council,” Jan Andersson told EURACTIV, “and our starting point is that we want to end the opt-out”.
However, all indications are that member states will not budge. Elizabeth Lynne told EURACTIV that “if the Council holds firm as I believe it will, then the Parliament would have to give way on the opt-out”.
Lynne believes a compromise might see national governments accept the Parliament’s position on “on-call time being classed as working time.”
But there are no guarantees such a compromise will be found. In the wake of the vote, Commissioner Vladimír Špidla reminded MEPs that “no changes can be made to the existing Working Time Directive unless there is an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council”. In effect, this means that should the conciliation process fail, the current directive with its present opt-outs will remain in place.
Gary Titley, leader of Labour’s MEPs, spoke to the BBC of his belief that the two sides were so far apart on the issue that the talks would probably end in stalemate and the opt-out would continue.
The issue is expected to be addressed by a conciliation committee in early 2009.