EC meets to decide fate of Working Time Directive

European
Commissioners meeting in Brussels
today are expected to endorse a set of changes to the EU’s Working Time Directive.

The
proposal for changes would give trade unions a veto over average working weeks
of more than 48 hours in workplaces where they have bargaining powers.

Employers
have expressed concern that such limits on working time will harm the
flexibility of the UK
labour market.

But
TUC leader Brendan Barber has also voiced concerns – that the proposals don’t go far enough for workers. He
has called for the commission to drop them.

In
a letter to the European Commission, Barber said: "We urge the commission
to abandon their current proposals to enable further consultation with unions
and employers as neither are content with what is on the table."

"UK
workers are going to be left exposed to dangerous long-hours working by these
weak reforms to our weak working time protections", the TUC leader argued.

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By Mike Berry