WORKING TIME : THE IMPOSSIBLE COMPROMISE.

The Czech EU Presidency has given itself until March to work out a compromise on amendments to the Working Time Directive. There are two challenges involved. First, a negotiating brief has to be obtained from the Council, identifying the aspects on which the 27 may possibly be prepared to give in (which will be no easy task, since the common position proved extremely difficult to seal in June 2008). Second, common ground will have to be found with the European Parliament which, in December 2008, massively rejected the Council's common position.

Time is of the essence. After March, "debates on a more flexible labour market as a result of the draft directive could fall victim to the [European Parliament's] election campaign," observed Petr Necas, the Czech minister of labour and social affairs, on 23 January, in the wings of an informal Council in Luhacovice.

In the absence of an agreement, "the existing directive will remain in force," Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla explained recently. "It allows derogations, without any framework, from the rule of a 48-hour work week," he added.

Europolitics Social takes a look at the main stumbling blocks and the positions defended.

ON-CALL TIME

The majority of member states still support the Council's common position as far as on-call time is concerned. The Council agreed on the following wording: "the inactive part of on-call time shall not be regarded as working time unless national law or, in accordance with national law and/or practice, a collective agreement or an agreement between the social partners provides otherwise". Parliament insists on considering "the entire period of on-call time, including the inactive part," as working time.

However, Austria, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, Greece, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia wish to find a compromise with the European Parliament. One solution suggested is that only part of the inactive period of on-call time could be regarded as working time ( equivalence principle'). Under this alternative, the calculation of the inactive part of on-call time does not differ from the Council's common position, since it would be based on the "average number of hours or a proportion of on-call time, taking account of experience in the sector concerned, by collective agreement or agreement between the social partners or by national legislation following consultation of the social...