Press release

The EP vote of the working time directive

Strasbourg 11 May 2005,

The GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament strongly supports the decision of the European Parliament to abolish the opt-out clause of the existing working time directive. But the group strongly criticizes that the parliament otherwise calls for a deregulation of the working time directive, more flexibility for companies and for a lowering of protection. The proposals adopted by the European Parliament today on annualized working hours and on on-call time would have very negative consequences on the lives of millions of employees throughout Europe.

The GUE/NGL underlines that the current working time directive does not provide for a high level of protection of workers' health and safety with regard to working time. It only established a maximum working week of 48 hours, which already had been stipulated 86 years ago by the ILO agreement C1 in 1919! And it contains many derogations allowing for even longer weekly working hours by way of flexible annual working time schemes on the basis of collective agreements. The watering down of this already weak level of protection is unacceptable. Thus the GUE/NGL calls for a new European Working Time Standard (EWTS) with a clear limitation of the maximum working week to encourage a process of working time reduction and redistribution of work in the Members States.

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for more information:

Ilda Figueiredo MEP, GUE/NGL Coordinator on Employment and Social Affairs + 32 284 5465,

Dimitri Padimoulis MEP shadow rapporteur of the GUE/NGL

René Roovers, GUE/NGL advisor on Employment and Social Affairs + 32 2 2842070

GUE/NGL press office : Gianfranco Battistini + 32 475 646628