France scuppers EU working time deal

France has refused to back down over its opposition to a proposal that could have broken the deadlock over EU working hours.

The proposal offered “a little bit to everybody”, according to Tarja Filatov, minister of labour for Finland, which put forward the compromise in its role as the current EU president.

But a blocking minority of five countries – France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus – scuppered the plans over their insistence on setting a 10-year timeframe for the scrapping of the opt-out from the 48-hour working week.

“We were quite close to striking a deal, but not sufficiently close,” Filatov said.

“Our proposals to restrict the use of the opt-out to certain cases, and to introduce a review clause to examine the future of the opt-out, were not enough to convince the five countries.”

EU employment chief Vladimír Špidla said that the five countries, “supposed defenders of the EU social model”, had left Europe in a worse state than before because of their refusal to accept the compromise.

“We have an unlimited opt-out in the directive, with no ‘social’ impediment,” he said. “The Finnish proposals offered real chance for an eventual end to the opt-opt, but now we haven’t even got a review clause.”

In France, where the maximum working week is set at 35 hours, far less than the 48 hour standard set at EU level, the opt-out is widely seen as contributing to the exploitation of workers and posing health and safety risks.

But Britain, which negotiated the opt-out, says it gives workers in the UK the flexibility to work as much – and earn as much – as they want.

And with presidential elections just round the corner, the French centre-right government was unable to back down from its defence of the EU social model without facing stiff criticism from the centre-left opposition.

Špidla said that “social progress” would have been better served by the Finnish proposal, and that many of the countries opposed to the opt-out would ironically find themselves forced to use it to comply with the recent court ruling on on-call time.

The court said that time spent on-call by doctors, pharmacists and other workers had to count towards the 48-hour week – leaving 23 member states in breach of EU rules.

“The situation is serious,” said Špidla. “Most EU countries did not count on-call time as working time, and so will now have to opt out if they want to keep their systems – and especially their health systems – working.”

He said that the commission had little option but to begin legal proceedings against all 23 countries for breaking EU law.

“We will explore our options, but there is little room for manoeuvre. Member states were unable to reach an agreement that would have meant genuine social progress, and so we are left with the status quo, which is not a good thing.”

The need to find a solution on on-call time had led some countries to hope that the Finnish proposal would succeed, and it was clear from the discussions that there was little appetite for resolving one issue without the other, Filatov said.

The future of working time rules remains unclear, with Germany, which takes over the presidency in January, making it clear it will not focus on the dossier.

Špidla hinted that the directive could be withdrawn altogether, but said that he wanted to look at other options before taking that final step.

Philip Bushill-Matthews, the British centre-right MEP, said that scrapping the law was the only sensible option. 

“It is a bad law that is going nowhere. It should be withdrawn and rebuilt. We support the principle of health and safety legislation, but do not support this directive in this form. It is time to move on.”

“Commission President Barroso has called for a new approach to EU lawmaking, so that from now on such laws should be simpler, less burdensome on business and more focused. The current Working Time Directive is none of the above.”

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