Working Time: – To Opt-out or To Not Opt-out : Confusion in Europe
17th February 2009
In December 2008 the European Parliament voted in favour of abolishing the Opt-out of the maximum 48 hours working week. The vote was to abolish the opt-out within the next 3 years. The vote had followed the recommendations of the EU Employment and Social Affairs Committee (see our News item for November 2008 entitled “ Threat to the UK’s 48 hours Opt-out”).
The European Commission has declined to support the vote in the European Parliament. It would seem that it has taken note of the UK’s objections to the abolition of the Opt-out. The Commission has said that, “While being in principle supportive of the eventual phasing out of the opt-out, the Commission does not consider that present conditions allow for phasing out of the Opt-out.”
Nevertheless, the Commission has moved towards supporting some aspects of the proposals that won favour in the European Parliament. In particular it has decided, subject to distinguishing between various types of “on-call” time, to support the view that inactive time spent “on-call” should be counted towards the worker’s working time. In addition the Commission has decided to support the proposal that a worker will not be able to validly agree to opt-out of the 48 hours maximum working week during a probationary period of employment.
While these developments should not be of immediate concern to most employers, they will require employers to give thought to the implications of these developments in the near future. This will be necessary for employers to plan staff workloads effectively, while keeping staff costs under control.
It is also notable that most workers sign opt-outs in the first days and months of their employment. Therefore a restriction on workers from signing opt-outs in their probationary periods will have a significant impact on the employment practices of many employers – as well as restricting the new workers ability to impress his/ her new employer by putting in a lot of extra hours during this period!
It still remains to be seen what compromise proposals finally emerge from the friction between the European parliament and the Commission on this issue.
If you require further information or advice on any of the matters raised in this article, please do not hesitate to contact us.