European Parliament Delay Working Time Vote

By Tim Lund, EWTD manager Department of Health

Following the European Council of Employment Minister’s support in June to amend the Working Time Directive to ease the problems from the SiMAP/Jaeger judgments and to retain the opt-out, negotiations have moved to the European Parliament.

The Parliament (whose agreement is required under the EU co-decision process) plan to vote on possible changes to the Directive by December. However, the Parliament is likely to seek amendments to the European Council text that could extend the negotiations.

The situation remains that any amendments to the WTD and UK Working Time Regulations will come too late to affect NHS planning for implementation of the WTD 48 hour week. In addition, there are no guarantees that any amendments will add significant flexibility because the European Parliament has been reluctant to remedy SiMAP/Jaeger issues in the past.

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