Bosses will still able to ask employees to work more than a 48-hour week under an EU agreement reached today in Luxembourg.
What is the working time directive?
The European commission introduced the working time directive in 1993 to work alongside member states' employment laws. It is primarily designed to safeguard workers' rights. It puts a limit on the number of hours that should be worked each week and specifies how long breaks should be, as well as legislating specifically for night-time working.
So what are the rights?
Employees have the right to:
· A maximum working week of 48 hours
· A rest period of 11 consecutive hours a day
· A rest break when the day is longer than six hours
· A minimum of one rest day per week
· The statutory right to four weeks' holiday
In addition to this:
· Night working must not average out at more than eight hours at a stretch
· Workers will be entitled to a free health check-up before being employed on night work and at regular intervals thereafter
How long has the directive been about?
It wasn't adopted in Britain until 1998 (and reluctantly at that), following the loss of a court battle in 1996. The Conservative government had argued that working time was not a health and safety provision under the EU treaties and should not be subject to regulation at EU level.
Labour supported the directive in opposition, saying it would help restore a fair balance between the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees. It has been rather less enthusiastic about it since being in power.
Does it apply to all workers?
The initial legislation allowed some temporary exemptions where employers in certain sectors argued that they needed time to comply with the law, so at first it failed to provide protection for some workers.
These included people working in transport, those involved in activities at sea and trainee doctors. It has since been extended by a complex piece of legislation called the horizontal amending directive, which was applied to UK law in 2003 to include most of these workers, giving them some or all of the rights. Junior doctors have only been included since August 1 2004.
What is the opt-out clause?
The opt-out has allowed member states to put in place measures allowing individuals to agree not to be subject to the 48-hour working limit. In other words, they can work for longer if they want to. Britain was the only country at the time to take this action after the negotiations in 1993.
Other countries have since put some measures in place for specific areas of work, but Britain has made the most widespread use of it.
The individual opt-out comes with conditions: employees have to formally agree to waive their right to work a maximum of 48 hours a week, and a refusal to do so cannot entail negative consequences.
Why does the government want an opt-out?
The British government has argued that the individual's right to choice on the opt-out should not be scrapped, pointing out that more than a million people would lose out on paid overtime if they had to stop working extra hours. It claims that getting rid of the opt-out would lead to higher costs for business, bring about job cuts and have a negative impact on British industry.
What are the arguments against?
Union officials say that having an opt-out could lead to widespread abuse, including, at worst, law breaking, and at best, confusion among businesses. The unions claim it is far too easy for employers to pressurise staff to work more than 48 hours a week.
The unions also argue that better management and "smart working" are far more effective tools in producing results than working long hours - for both businesses and employees - since long working hours cause bad health and stress. Consequently, employers do not get the best out of workers.
According to the TUC, 3.3 million employees currently work longer than 48 hours a week.
How do things stand now?
Today's deal, if finally approved, means employers will not be allowed to ask workers to sign up to work more than a 48-hour working week in the first month of employment. Workers cannot be penalised or victimised for declining to sign up after that time, or for subsequently withdrawing from an opt-out agreement.
Employees who opt to work longer than 48 hours a week are subject to a cap of 60 hours, although this is worked out as an average across three months, allowing them to work for even longer in busier periods.
Employers will no longer be allowed to ask staff to sign waivers within one month of beginning employment, and will not be permitted to penalise staff who refuse to work longer or who later decide to opt out.
Employers must also keep records when the working hours of opted-out workers exceed 48 hours a week.
Today's talks also clarified the rules for on-call workers. Until now, on-call time has been deemed to be working time, adding to public sector staffing costs. The new deal makes the distinction between "active" on-call time, which counts towards the maximum working week, and "inactive" working time - for example an uninterrupted night's sleep while on call - which does not.