News

Late last night the EU's Employment ministers reached a compromise agreement on the contentious directives on Working time and Temporary agency work. Hence the Commission will be able to present a comprehensive social package in the comming weeks (2 July 2008). The draft text will now go back to the European Parliament for a second reading, followed by a Social Affairs Council meeting that has to decide on the text in light of the Parliaments reading. If Council and Parliament cannot meet an agreement mediaton will follow to settle their differences. The next Council meeting will take place in October 2008.



The text on Temporary agency workers ensures that workers employed through agencies enjoy rights equal to those of other employees from the first day of their employment; exemptions are permitted if the social partners come to an agreement nationally. This means that the UK can keep the 12 weeks qualification period, which the social partners and the UK government agreed upon on 20 May 2008.



The deal on the Working Time Directive restricts workers from working more than an average of 48 hours a week, allowing for flexible arrangements if they agree to work longer. To summarize this is what the Council agreed on yesterday:

• The opt out remains - but with a new 60 hour cap averaged over 3 months (65 hours if at least 5 hours are "inactive" on-call work on the employers premises),
  
• The judgements in the Simap and Jäger cases are reversed (apart from the 65 hour cap), the term “inactive" on-call time, which is not regarded as working time, is introduced,
  
• The opt out is not allowed in the first 4 weeks of the employment contract,
  
• An opt out agreement cannot run longer than one year without renewal,
  
• All workers will be allowed to withdraw their agreement on an opt-out during the first 3 months,
  
• The employer will not be allowed to require a period of notice that exceeds 3 months after the worker gave notice that he/she wants to withdraw their agreement to opt out,
  
• There will be no 48 hour or 60 hour limit for workers employed by the same company for 10 weeks or less in any single year,
  
• All workers will have the right to be told about changes to their working patterns in good time,
  
• All workers will have the right to ask for changes of their working patterns and employers must take requests seriously,
  
• There will be further review of the Directive 4 years after implementation (likely to be 2016).