Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-15-Speech-1-075"
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"en.20081215.14.1-075"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, President-in-Office of the Council, excessive working hours make workers ill and result in loss of concentration and increasing numbers of mistakes. People working excessive hours are a danger not only to themselves but also to those around them. Would you want to be treated by a doctor suffering from fatigue, for example, or to encounter him or her in traffic after excessive on-call duty? Therefore, we shall be voting in favour of a Working Time Directive that, unlike the one the Council has adopted, is not as full of holes as a Swiss cheese.
A Working Time Directive whose upper limits are merely guidelines, since an opt-out can be agreed in each individual employment contract, fails to meet the objective of protecting health at work. It is our task as co-legislators to ensure that a Working Time Directive contains minimum standards compatible with health. For this reason, the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance will be voting against further opt-outs.
We do think it right for the Member States to have three years to adapt their national legislation. We shall not, however, be voting in favour of making the British opt-out a general derogation in the European Union. Likewise, we disapprove of the fact that the Commission is now classifying working time spent on-call as inactive time and considering it a rest period.
It is particularly important to us that, as a rule, working time be calculated on the basis of individuals and not of each individual contract. This amendment by the Greens is crucial and contradicts what Mrs Lynne depicted here as an illusion.
I also reject the assertion that the European Parliament has not proposed a flexible model. On the contrary, the extension to a 12-month reference period permits a great deal of flexibility, just not at the expense of statutory rest periods, and that is important to us.
Commissioner, it is not true that workers can decide for themselves. They themselves know that that is impossible; why else would a 30 000-strong demonstration be announced for tomorrow, and some people be demonstrating already? This is why we must reaffirm our position from first reading. This is the only way a Working Time Directive can also bring protection of health at work."@en1
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