Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-15-Speech-1-078"
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"en.20081215.14.1-078"2
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"Mr President, the Working Time Directive is a waste of time. It has been around since before I was an MEP, shortly after which a minister from the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions asked me to support HMG’s position to retain the opt-outs. Naturally, I did so. I still do and I am in good company with many other countries.
So let me trace some of the chequered history. On 18 December 2007, the rapporteur said that a group of countries did not want the WTD or a social Europe. They wanted a free market. He called that the law of the jungle. He said that they must have been psychiatric cases.
Well, thanks! Due to worldwide trading and freedom from EU restraints at home, the UK is strong enough to be the EU’s second-biggest contributor, at GBP 15 billion every year. I do not suppose he would turn that away!
In December 2007, the Portuguese presidency said they could not risk a vote in Council so they let the next presidency, Slovenia, sort it out. And that is after working it in with the temporary workers’ agency, to help it along. Slovenia suggested a 65-hour working week and then 70 hours. However, the Council’s attitude to standby time wrecked that. Then the ECJ drove a horse and cart through minimum-wage policies.
When Finland ended their presidency, their Labour Minister commented to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs that Ministers talked big about the WTD in Brussels but when they got home it was a different story. Quite!
Last month, on 4 November, the rapporteur again said the WTD must come first, even before economics. Well, if you neglect economics, how do you raise the taxes which result from the Working Time Directive? Companies taking on extra workers to fill the gap left by short working time raises unit costs. They fail to compete and jobs are lost, which is why France abandoned its 35-hour working week.
So let us follow the French. Bury this unworkable time directive once again and for all."@en1
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