Brussels, 18/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) is to take part in a Euro-demonstration organised on Saturday in Brussels with a view to the European Council for defending Social Europe. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) will also take part to warn against the Commission's proposal to amend the Working Time Directive (see EUROPE of 23 September 2004, pages 7 and 8).
“It is mainly on this last point that we shall be demonstrating. The proposal is surreal”, Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, EPSU Secretary General, told the press. The proposal presents risks for the health and safety of workers and, as such, is for the first time in the history of the EU a “step backward when it comes to social policy”. “The proposals are simply not workable. Our objections are practical not ideological”, Ms Fischbach-Pytell stressed, saying: “The Commission wishes to introduce a new category of inactive time in the workplace but has made no suggestion on how this could practically be monitored”. “The directive is crucial for the European social model”, Portuguese Socialist MEP Alejandro Cercas, who has written a report on the matter, said. He added that it is a matter that “creates a real balance between flexibility and the protection of workers' health and safety”. The Cercas report thus calls for the gradual elimination of the individual opt-out for Member States, a weekly working time of 48 hours, respect of Court of Justice jurisprudence (Jaeger ruling) on on-duty times for hospital doctors among others, which must be considered as working time. “I trust that the EP will approve the report and that we can together build a Europe that protects the rights of all in good social conditions”, Mr Cercas concluded. “The Lisbon strategy aims to create quality jobs and to bring 60% of female labour onto the labour market by 2010. The Working Time Directive must be along these lines. The Cercas report is a good compromise solution. We want the EP to give a powerful message on an acceptable compromise on this issue”, British Labour member Stephen Hugues commented. Speaking for the confederal secretariat for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Catelene Passchier, it is “essential that the opt-out provision, which had been intended only as a temporary measure, be abolished” and it is “a scandal that the European Court of Justice could be so casually ignored by the Commission”.