Don't give in on Working Time, Darling

10.47.46am GMT Tue 7th Nov 2006

EU Employment Ministers will today meet at an informal summit in Brussels to review Finnish proposals on the Working Time directive.

Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne, shadow rapporteur for the directive for the Liberal Group in the European Parliament, commenting ahead of the summit said:

"It is imperative that we reach a conclusion regarding the health sector but we can't do that at the expense of the removal of the opt out from other sectors."

"The individual opt out of the Working Time Directive is necessary because we do not have a tradition of collective agreements in the UK.

"I also believe that anyone whose work does not have a direct consequence on life and death decisions should have a free choice as to what hours they work and how much overtime pay they can take home.

"However the opt out has to be truly voluntary and I worked very hard to try to provide stringent conditions to make sure workers would not have to opt-out of the directive against their wishes.

"If adopted, the current deal proposed by the Finns would go some way to making sure the opt out is truly voluntary but it would be very bureaucratic for business. The proposal still sets an unacceptably low limit on the average number of hours in a working week and completely fails to address the issue of multiple contracts where a worker can be employed even by the same company on more than one contract; this is used by many other EU countries and makes a mockery of the whole directive."

"I wrote to Alistair Darling last week expressing my concerns about the Finnish proposals and I hope he has taken these on board. The UK Government must realise that any agreement that retains the opt out may receive a hostile reception from some political parties on return to the European Parliament and risks be watered down further by the UK Government's own MEPs, so let us hope Mr Darling doesn't sell us out."

"All workers are quite rightly, of course, still covered by directives concerning health and safety including the one covering working with dangerous machinery. Removing the opt-out or adding conditions that make it unworkable for companies and workers would in my opinion lead to more people working illegally and therefore not covered by health & safety legislation. We must clamp down on the black economy not encourage it."

"I have always argued that it is in the UK's best interest to keep its economy flexible but while Tony Blair agrees, his Labour MEPs are fighting tooth and nail to change that.

"Trade Unions are also lobbying hard for the UK's opt-out to go but at the same time grassroots union members scream out for flexibility to ensure they can work extra hours to earn extra cash when they need it"

Notes to Editors

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/lsa/91495.pdf