Great Britain: relief after the failure of negotiations on the “working time” Directive

The failure of the negotiations conducted in Luxembourg on the revision of the Working time Directive (see our article n° 06552) was welcomed in Great Britain (Réf. 06555)
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For Alistair Darling, British Minister for Trade and Industry, it was out of question of accepting a compromise challenging the freedom to choose work schedules in a negotiated way. “We could not accept a text aimed at removing the opt-out principle. I think it’s great that we can preserve it – and I find it encouraging that an increasing number of countries use it”, he said. The individual opt-out is the faculty opened by the 1993 directive, which allows the employer, with the assent of the em

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