(8 June 2010)
EPSU final response to the European Commission’s Communication on Working Time, as endorsed by the Executive Committee on 28 May, highlights:
latest research exposing the health and safety risks of long working hours for doctors and patients
intensification of work
lengthening of working careers
the need for the Working Time Directive to be tightened up in specific areas such as definition of autonomous workers, bogus self-employment and the fact that it should cover (...)

(16 April 2010) In an initial response to the European Commission’s Communication on working time, EPSU stresses the need to keep issue of safety at the centre of the debate. And this is not just a question of workers’ health and safety but about the need to protect a wide range of people who rely on public service workers for their health and protection.
EPSU general secretary Carola Fischbach-Pyttel said: “Hundreds of thousands of our members are delivering essential services to millions of (...)

Press Communication (24 March 2010) Long and irregular hours, unilaterally imposed on workers, are unhealthy and outmoded forms of work organization. ETUC is expecting proposals from the European Commission that stimulate modern, sustainable and negotiated solutions, taking into account the needs of businesses and workers in a balanced way. This was ETUC’s message in 2004, when it was first consulted on the revision of the Working Time Directive (WTD). This is again ETUC’s message, in a (...)

(9 juillet 2009) The ETUC Executive Committee yesterday confirmed its position on the working time directive. EPSU General Secretary Carola Fischbach-Pyttel expresses her satisfaction with the ETUC statement: ‘Our message to the Commission is very clear. We do not want a fast track consultation on a revised working time directive over the summer break. We now need time for reflection before any revision of the directive. We expect that the Commission now lives up to its duties and enforces (...)

(29 May 2009, Spain) Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Alejandro Cercas (pictured right with EPSU General Secretary Carola Fishcbach-Pyttel, and Stephen Hughes MEP), has today slammed the European Commission’s attempts to get an ’under the table deal’ on working time. The MEP had discovered that the Commission was preparing to launch an initiative on working time, but which would exlude the key topic of the so-called ’individual opt-out’. EPSU has received the full text of an (...)

Press Communication
(28 April, 2009) The Conciliation Committee, set up to find a compromise on working time between Parliament and Council, met for the last time last night. Talks concluded without an agreement being reached. The sticking points were the opt-out, on-call time and multiple contracts.
“Despite the best efforts of the European Parliament delegation, it was not possible to reach an agreement that would have allowed the working time directive to play a meaningful role in (...)

End to Opt-Out ‘logical’ if directive is to have any meaning
(18 March 2009, Brussels) The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), particularly as the European social partner for firefighters and medical personnel, welcomes the European Parliament stance as working time talks begin.
The so called ‘conciliation committee’ process on the working time directive started on Tuesday (17 March). The formal talks, between teams from the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, (...)

(17 December, 2008, Strasbourg) By overwhelming majority, the European Parliament has today voted to keep the working time directive strong. Under the expert stewardship of Socialist MEP Alejandro Cercas, the vote saw huge majorities on the three key points: a fair period in which to calculate the average working week; counting on-call time in the workplace as working time; and a phasing out of the opt-out from the directive. The margin of victory exceeded even the most optimistic (...)

(16 December, 2008, Strasbourg) Over 10,000 trade unionists demonstrated outside the European Parliament, calling on Members to vote for fair working time in the EU. The MEPs are due to vote on the working time directive on Wednesday (December 17). At stake is the definition of working time, the period over which the maximum average working week is calculated, and perhaps most importantly, the extent to which EU member states are legally obliged to implement the directive.
The European (...)