Failure of Employment Council to reach Working Time deal further highlights validity of European Parliament Position
Press communication
(2 June, Brussels) The failure of the Employment Council to reach a settlement on the working time directive yesterday, (1 June) is further illustration that Employment Ministers continue to avoid political reality on the issue, and continue to ignore the clear demands of the representatives of EU workers and citizens. The Austrian Presidency was unable to break the deadlock despite last minute manoeuvrings.
"After 12 hours of debate yesterday, the Ministers were still unable to find a solution on working time. This is the third successive EU Presidency under which this issue has stalled", said EPSU General Secretary, Ms. Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, "and most critically, this is despite the fact that, thanks to the European Parliament, the solution is right under their noses".
The debate in Council focussed on the two critical issues of the so-called ’individual opt-out’ and the definition of ’on-call duty in the workplace’. As under the Luxembourg and UK Presidencies, the barrier proved to be the phasing out of the opt-out, coupled with the acceptance of on-call in the workplace, as working time.
The European Parliament under the stewardship of ALEJANDRO CERCAS, MEP, has already proposed a practical solution. The Cercas report, which passed with a large majority, called for recognition of on-call duty in the workplace as working time, and called for a phasing out of the opt-out. However, despite the broad political support in Parliament, the report has been dismissed by the European Commission and the Council.
Ms. Fischbach-Pyttel stated that ; "the evidence to use the CERCAS report as the basis for progress is now overwhelming. It is an embarrassment that the working time directive, the lodestone of the EU’s commitment to worker and patient safety should be placed in suspended animation. The European Parliament has provided the direction - it is now up to the Council to accept".
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For more information please contact EPSU Communications Officer Brian Synnott bsynnott@epsu.org, gsm +32 474 98 96 75
EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC. 8 million public service workers and their 209 trade unions are members. They organise workers in health and social services, local and national administration, energy, water, waste.
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