The Commission’s Opinion is good news for employers who currently require to make use of the 48 hour week opt-out.
The European Commission has given an Opinion rejecting the European Parliament’s proposal to remove the 48 hour working week opt-out currently contained within the Working Time Directive.
It was widely reported in the Press in December 2008 that the European Parliament voted to remove the 48 hour week opt-out from the Working Time Directive. At the time, some Members of the European Parliament hailed the vote as a ‘triumph’. However, for businesses currently dealing with economic downturn it may have been considered anything but a ‘triumph’.
If the Parliament’s proposal had been accepted, the opt-out would have been gone by 2011.
