Brussels, 05/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 5 May, the European Parliament rejected a proposal by the European Commission amending the existing directive on the organisation of working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities. MEPs in plenary session adopted (332 votes to 307, with 6 abstentions) the joint PES/GUE/Greens amendment to the report by Marie Panayatopoulos-Cassiotou (EPP-ED, Greece) proposing that the new directive, the adoption of which would result in the exclusion of self-employed drivers from European legislation, be rejected. The European Commission noted this decision and undertook to draw the lessons from it, said Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani after the vote. A new legislative proposal will be drafted and put to the EP employment committee to be scrutinised. The committee rejected the text presented by the Commission in a vote in March. The spokesman for the Socialist Group in the EP Stephen Hughes said that, for the PES, it was crucial that all road hauliers should be covered. He felt that everybody should be on the same footing, adding that if the Commission proposal had been adopted, it would have resulted in unacceptable discrimination between drivers employed by companies, who would be protected by European rules, and self-employed drivers, and might have encouraged companies to use what have been called “false self-employed drivers”, opening the way for social dumping. In line with current rules (directive 2002/15), self-employed drivers in the road transport sector come under the same rules as those who are employed by companies, in terms of working and rest time. In March, the Council agreed a general approach on the proposal backing, subject to certain conditions, the exclusion of self-employed workers from the legislation (see EUROPE 9872). (A.By./transl.rt)