The Finnish Presidency of the EU has convened a Council of Employment ministers on November 7th with the hope to reach a compromise on the revision of the working time directive. It proposes to keep the individual opt-out faculty but limits the use of new flexibilities negotiated within the framework of the revision (12 months reference period to calculate the maximum weekly working time and new definition of on-call time). The advantage for States : it solves the problem of inactive periods within the on-call time. The risk: a directive that, instead of approximating the different legislations, allows Member States to install an "à la carte" working time. Negotiators must now examine this text before submitting it to ministers. (Ref. 061023)
A difficult compromise and a game with multiple players. Member States really want a compromise. The necessity to introduce into the draft directive in debate a definition of inactive periods within the on-call time obliges them to look actively for a solution. If they don’t find one, the case law of the CJCE, which assimilates all on-call time (including inactive periods) to working time, will prevail. The European Commission has increased the pressure by announcing its intention to attack the
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