European Union Update

The European Union Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council agreed to delay a decision on outstanding aspects of the Working Time Directive at their meeting on the 5th and 6th December 2007.

For a full report into the EU Council meeting, see: www.consilium.europa.eu/newsroom

The directive clauses still needing clarification and agreement - on-call ‘inactive' time and ‘opt-out' provision - were both postponed in order to further pursue dialogue with member states.

The deferral follows the recent Council decision to discuss both these aspects of the WTD and a second directive, aimed at establishing working conditions for temporary agency workers.

Historically, both issues have been discussed separately but it was felt they were linked as they both deal with central aspects of the regulation of contemporary labour markets.

The Council stressed that achieving results in the short-term was of utmost importance for the EU as a whole.

Aspects of the directive currently under examination are:

• That any on-call duty performed by a doctor, as long as he or she is required to be physically present in the hospital - even is he or she spends his or time resting - must be regarded as working time. The directive is looking to introduce a definition of ‘inactive part of on-call time'
• The possibility of not applying the maximum weekly working time if the worker agrees to work longer hours - the ‘opt-out' provision.