There follows an update on the conciliation negotiations on the Working Time Directive, following Tuesday evening’s Conciliation Committee meeting, courtesy of our membership of the CBI with whom we are working on this issue, on behalf of MIA members.
On Tuesday evening, the Conciliation Committee was unable to reach an agreement on the Directive.
This included the opt-out clause, the definition of on-call time, and the issue of multiple contracts. The opt-out clause remained the main stumbling block, with the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament unable to reconcile their positions.
Mechtild Rothe (PES), chair of the European Parliament (EP) delegation in the negotiations, stressed that the Council of Ministers would need to make serious steps towards the Parliament’s position. The EP were willing to negotiate with the Council to reach a compromise, but not at any cost. On the issue of the opt-out, Ms Rothe said that to reach agreement the EP would need to see “a finite date for the phasing out of the opt-out” and would “not agree to the inclusion of any blanket exceptions” to this. However, the Council of Ministers has made it very clear they are unwilling to compromise their position on the opt-out – which is in line with the UK Government position too.
With regards to the definition of on-call time, the Council would still define “inactive periods” of on call time as “rest time”. The EP have made some moves towards the Council position on this, stating that the EP could perhaps consider the possibility that a “proportion of inactive on-call time could be calculated as rest time”.
Another point of contention was the issue of multiple contracts and whether working time be calculated by person, or on a contract basis. For the Parliament it is essential that working hours be calculated by person, to avoid a worker with multiple contracts exceeding the 48 hours across multiple contracts. The Council asked that the Commission produce a non-binding communication to Member States on this, but this would not be satisfactory in the eyes of the Parliament. The parties were also unable to reach an agreement on compensatory rest.
The Conciliation Committee now has six weeks, with the possibility of an additional two weeks if necessary, in which to reach an agreement in the form of a compromise ‘joint text’.
However with the Parliamentary election in June, any agreement reached by the Conciliation Committee needs to be voted upon by the Parliament’s plenary, in their final session before the elections, of 4-7 May. This deadline curtails the time the Committee has to reach a decision.
If the Conciliation committee is unable to reach an agreement, or if the Council or Parliament does not approve the ‘Joint text’, then the act will fall. The procedure can only then be restarted if the Commission comes forward with a new legislative proposal.
The next meeting of the Committee is due to take place on Wednesday 1 April.
