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THE DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry has translated the European working time directive into UK law. Workers will be covered from 1 October 1998. The new rules were welcomed by the TUC, but employment law firms gave the regulations a mixed review. For the first time, workplace arrangements with employers may be negotiated by bodies other than unions. The rules state that while collective agreements can be made with 'independent' trade unions, workforce agreements can be made where there is no recognised trade union. The workforce can either individually sign the agreement - where a firm employs 20 workers or less - or workers can elect representatives to negotiate on their behalf. The limits on time worked will be enforced by the Health & Safety Executive and local authorities, while entitlements, eg to rest breaks and paid annual leave, will be enforced by industrial tribunals.
Thompsons, the employment barristers, welcomed the Government's use of the term 'workers' in the regulations which they say will 'reduce the risk of avoidance by employers by setting up bogus self-employment arrangements to get around them'. Freelance workers will also come under the working time rules. But the law firm noticed the absence of protection against employers who use 'coercion' to surrender entitlements to leave or breaks. The opportunity remains for workers to take an employer to court for personal injury or industrial disease or condition caused by excessive hours. The European working time directive dates from 1993, but its legality was challenged in the European Court of Justice by the last Tory government. The former administration lost the case in 1996. Talks are contiuing in Europe to find ways of including the sectors which were originally excluded from the directive.
Working Time Regulations: Exceptions | ||
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Workers with unmeasured working time, for example managing executives and family members, will only be subject to the paid annual leave provisions. |
Workers who are necessarily busy for long periods at certain times, engaged in activities requiring continuity of service (dock work, hospital services, civil protection services, agriculture and tourism) should receive compensatory rest periods if they cannot take the statutory breaks. |
Force Majeure - unexpected and unpredictable occurrences beyond an employer's control.
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The TUC working time expert is David Coats. |
Email questions to : | |
FORMAL WARNINGS to member states by the Commission increased from 819 to 957 last year. The warnings were for breaches of EU law. In July the European Commission announced that it would start legal proceedings against states that did not approve national legislation, as European directives require. Among the offenders are: Luxembourg and Portugal, who have not made works councils law in their countries; Germany, France, Italy and Luxembourg, who are behind on equal rights legislation; and Italy, which has not added working time legislation to its employment law. Meanwhile, although working time regulations, based on the European working time directive, will have legal force from 1 October in the UK, employment lawyers believe that workers can still take the Government to court for not implementing it sooner. UK workers should have had a statutory right to breaks and holidays from December 1996 (see story above).
WHILE THE STANDOFF continues between Europe's unions and employers - the latter refuse to discuss possible legislation on consulting employees - the European TUC has detected a softening of the bosses' stance. Talks between the union and employers organisation (UNICE) failed to start this spring, to the consternation of the Commission who see the so-called 'social dialogue' as the best way of drafting labour law. The Commission threatened to draft the legislation without the input of the unions and employers. It seems now that UNICE is looking again at its decision not to participate in talks on worker consultation. ETUC leader Emilio Gabaglio said 'It seems that UNICE might now be changing its mind. And it seems likely that this sudden shift may not be unconnected with the leaked content of a draft directive on the matter, which the Commission is preparing to put forward. If so, it would confirm that UNICE could only be brought to the negotiating table by threat of legislation'. The ETUC sees no point in negotiations unless the parties go into them accepting that information and consultation is a fundamental right of all workers.
The Commission was closed in August and no progress was made on draft legislation during that month. However, the Council of Ministers decided this summer to amend the TUPE law (transfer of undertakings) to take account of changes that have occurred in the past 20 years. Before the August break, the Commission published a proiposal for a directive to combat late payments in financial transactions. The Commission is back at work on the 24th of August, while the European Parliament's next session is in September.
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