UE: clock is ticking for the ‘Working Conditions’ draft directive (in Brief)

Europe’s co-legislators are struggling to agree on a text for the ‘working conditions’ draft directive (see article n°10507). In spite of five rounds of negotiations, EU Parliament and Council representatives continue to fail to find common ground on a text that aims to guarantee transparent working conditions for all workers and to introduce new rights on predictability and security at work. The main hurdle lies with the definition of the ‘worker’. While Parliament backs the initial proposal to rely on Court of Justice jurisprudence, the EU Council instead wants national legislation to determine the definition. From among other sticking points is how to define the scope of the directive’s application and the possibility of excluding certain workers. As a reminder the European Commission had proposed introducing a certain number of hours per month (8 hours) below which the future directive would not apply. The EU Member States went even further fixing that threshold at 20 hours per month (5 hours per week), however the EU Parliament refused to introduce such provisions, convinced that by doing so the Directive would promote fraudulent activity. During their latest meeting on 28 January the EU Council put forward a compromise solution of 4 hours per week but Parliament still refused. Another negotiation meeting is set for 31 January. One thing is certain however and that is that time is running out before the European elections get underway in May. Ideally the co-legislators should agree during February so that Parliament has enough time to ratify the agreement before the elections.