Brussels, 23/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - The first reaction of the left and right of the European Parliament to the European Commission proposals on revision of working time was generally negative, for different reasons (EUROPE yesterday pp 7 - 8).
In the EPP-ED group, CSU MEP Joachim Wuermeling immediately announced that he would fight for greater liberalisation of the way working time was organised. In a Union of 450 million inhabitants, this supporter of subsidiarity said in a communiqué that uniform working time did not make sense and called on the EU to renounce these "anachronistic rigidities". The Commission proposal cannot be accepted as it stood, claimed CDU MEP Peter Liese, who as a doctor, was particularly critical of the "on-call" provisions. He stated that it was normal that they wanted to monitor adequate health care in hospitals but doctors were "not machines".
Stephen Hughes (Labour Party, UK) speaking for the Socialist Group was especially critical of the opt-out being kept with regard to the maximum 48 hour working week. He was afraid that this "would push average working time up to UK levels, currently far higher than the EU average", which would be bad for the health and safety of workers, family life, as well as being in contravention of the Lisbon objective of creating more jobs of better quality. Mr Hughes believes that this issue should have been left to the future Commission. Hughes also called on Parliament to quickly draft a report with the end of getting rid of the opt-out. German Social Democrat Karin Jöns was also concerned about the position of doctors. She insisted that "no-one should be exposed to the risk of being treated by exhausted doctors…On-call time is working time". Recalling the Court of Justice ruling which backed her point of view up, Jöns cited a study carried out by the Germany Hospitals Institute submitted last March by the Health Minister Ulla Schmidt and according to which the introduction for doctors of working hours that complied with this ruling would be workable even with current funding and personnel.
Jiri Mastalka from the Czech Republic (United European Left/Left Nordic Left), was circumspect in a generally positive judgement of the Commission proposals, "As a doctor, I know well what damage can be caused to people's health from excessive working time". This explains his satisfaction at noting that the Commission is providing the unions with "veto over average working weeks of more than 48 hours in workplaces where they have bargaining powers. This of course still leaves millions of workers all over the EU…in a very vulnerable position", he regretted, adding that the "GUE/NGL Groups will be working hard in the European Parliament to see an overall reduction in the maximum weekly working time from 48 to 40 hours".