(September 2005) The summer period saw some of the fears of EPSU confirmed on the WTD dossier. Rather than openly discuss and resolve the challenges placd before EU decision-makers by the Court of Justice (most notably the Jaeger judgement), the Council of Ministers retreated to a classic “Euro-fudge”. The Employment Council of Ministers, held under the Luxembourg Presidency on 2 June, failed to reach an agreement based on the European Parliament compromise put forward in the CERCAS report. The ETUC reported at the time: “We are very disappointed that this week's Employment Council lacked the courage to approve the compromise proposal for revision of the Working Time Directive agreed by the European Parliament,” said ETUC General Secretary John Monks. The ETUC would have liked the Commission to come forward with revised proposals in line with the will of the democratically elected EP. Many Member States understand that the annual reference period for calculating average working time will give employers perfectly adequate flexibility, yet a UK-led minority is now blocking progress, and this will merely serve to strengthen the feeling among European voters that the EU is not on their side. In particular, Germany's siding with the UK, at this time, is incomprehensible. “ (Extract ETUC press release 03/06/05).
The UK PRESIDENCY has scheduled the WTD on the agenda for the December 8-9 Employment and Social Affairs Council.
This is in line with declarations made to EP committees by various UK Ministers that the UK government does intend to progress the dossier during the presidency. However it does not intend to give up the opt-out as it considers the current proposal too inflexible (and this was admitted by the UK Prime Minister during a meeting with John Monks on 29 June). This is confirmed by the White paper on the Presidency programme, which makes a clear reference to the commitment towards a solution “that preserves the freedom of individual workers to choose to work more than 48 hours per week and mitigates the impact of rulings ...from ECJ on Governments' ability to deliver high-quality health and public services”. This stance seems to completely disregard the genuine attempt to compromise made by the EP when it accepted an extension of the reference period to 12 months to make the measure more flexible. The issue of the WTD needs to be keep as an ‘active' issue at national level.
The ETUC is organising a Conference on the WTD in London. This will take place on 17-18 November 2005. The ETUC hopes to highlight issues of best practice in arranging working times. The aim is to illustrate that here are constructive, progressive solutions to this issue when trade unions are properly involved and consulted. EPSU affiliates are urged to actively contribute to this conference (directly, or though national confederations).
There needs to be a ‘twin-track' focus for the duration of the UK Presidency.The WTD is scheduled for debate on 8-9 December. EPSU affiliates need to create sufficient political pressure in advance of this meeting. Although the UK Presidency has indicated it's intent in not moving on the issue, we need to clearly urge for a compromise based on the CERCAS document. Secondly, preparation needs to be made to increase the European Commission's level of responsibility regarding the WTD. If the UK Presidency (and possibly the Austrian Presidency) does not find agreement, pressure needs to be applied on the Commission to implement (strictly) the existing Working Time directive provisions.
There are risks that the blocking of this issue will encourage further national actions to make working time arrangements more informal. There is already evidence in the Netherlands that the individual opt-out may be introduced. This needs to be questioned from a legal perspective, particularly whether any such move would constitute regression.
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