The UK faces legal action from the European Commission as a result of its failure to implement fully the Working Time Directive.

Amicus, Britain’s largest manufacturing union, believes that the Government has not done enough to enforce the terms of the Directive. The Commission has now asked the Government to respond to complaints that the Directive has been unlawfully and inadequately implemented in three principal areas:

  • the enforcement of employees’ rights to rest breaks and holidays;
  • the exclusion of overtime on night shifts from the calculation of working time;
  • the lack of records of time worked voluntarily above normal working time.

Amicus has welcomed the Commission’s response. It is keen to end the long hours culture prevailing in the UK and to create what it sees as a level playing field throughout Europe.

Employers’ spokesmen do not share Amicus’s enthusiasm. The CBI has expressed particular concern about the obligation for employers to record voluntary additional hours, describing it as a "huge bureaucratic nightmare". It does not view it as the employer’s job to make sure that workers take their breaks and holidays.

The DTI has said that it will consider the position carefully and make a full response by the deadline of 21st May imposed by the Commission.

One of the key elements of the UK’s Working Time Regulations may well be removed independently of the current challenge. The Directive, as originally enacted, allows Member States to provide for individual agreements opting out of the maximum average 48 hour working week. The availability of opt out agreements, which are not used in most Member States, is to be reviewed by the EU by November next year.

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