WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE : UK FOUND GUILTY OF FLOUTING WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE.

• Position: Brief article

An Advocate General from the EU Court of Justice recommended on 9 March that the UK be found guilty of transposing one of its pet hates - the Working Time Directive - on two counts (case C-484/04).

The United Kingdom was found to have taken advantage of the possibilities for opting out of Directivea93/104/EC on certain aspects of the organisation of working time (Article 17, s. 1) by integrating the clause stating that "maximum permissable working hours per week or for night work only apply to a part of working time which can be measured and/or predetermined" into Britain's own working time regulations. A practice which Advocate-Generalauliane Kokott found to be a chargeable offence. The exceptions to the Directive need to "be interpreted strictly". Derogations (from Article 17) are only applicable when working time as a whole, because particularities of the activity in question, is unable to be measured and/or predetermined". (1)

On another account, the Advocate-General found the guidelines given by the UK Department of Trade and Industry...