Brussels, 23/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission was swift to respond to common positions on temporary work and the working time amendment adopted last week by the Council (EUROPE 9742). In two separate communications adopted on Thursday 18 September, it gave its support to texts ruled on by the Council and which are the result of a “very long and difficult first reading”.
The Commission supports the common position on certain aspects of the working time amendment (2003/88/EC) although this common position is different to the amended proposal in several regards. It also admits that certain changes called for by the EU27 strengthen the level of protection to workers and underlines that the “present situation regarding on-call time and compensatory rest still urgently requires clarification through legislative change”. The Commission says that it is aware of the advantages for overall protection for workers, resulting from the Council's decision to link the political agreement on this draft directive amendment with the new draft directive on temporary work. It stated that “this approach has allowed two key proposals to finally move into second reading, after a very long period of political blockage”. Overall, in view of the strongly divergent positions of member states during the very protracted and difficult first reading on amendment of the Working Time Directive (almost four years), the Commission perceives that “supporting the common position is the best way of allowing the legislative procedures on this important amending proposal to continue”.
In connection with the draft directive on temporary work, the Commission notes that in general it should be stressed that the common position considerably enhances the text of the initial proposal and responds to the European Parliament's desire to ensure that the principle of equal treatment, as regards basic working and employment conditions between temporary agency workers and workers directly recruited by user companies, should have effect as of day one of their assignments. Prohibitions or restrictions on the use of temporary agency work can only be maintained after the implementation of the directive if they are justified on grounds of general interest. At that stage, any continuing prohibitions or restrictions must be subject to review and made the subject of a report to the Commission. In the interests of subsidiarity, differing national practices as regards labour market conditions and industrial relations practice among the member states can be accommodated through affording scope for derogations from the principle of equal treatment by collective agreement or - under specific conditions - by agreement between the national social partners. Texts of the communications: amendment of working time directive: (http: //eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM: 2008: 0568: FIN: EN: PDF); temporary work: (http: //eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM: 2008: 0569: FIN: EN: PDF). (O.L./transl.rh))