Malta rejects revision of working time directive

Abstract

Unwilling to end its opt-out clause, Malta has rejected the Finnish Presidency’s compromise proposal for a revised version of the working time directive. Nevertheless, the Maltese government stated that it was in favour of negotiations to find a common EU solution for a revised directive. The social partners have supported the government’s stand on the issue. Malta has turned down the Finnish presidency proposal attempting to resolve the disagreement and break the long-term deadlock that has existed over the reform of Directive 2003/88/EC (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ /LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003L0088:EN:HTML) concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (//www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork /industrial-relations-dictionary/working-time). Malta is one of the Member States – together with the UK (UK0611039I (//www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles /social-partners-divided-over-stalemate-in-eu-discussions-on-working-time-opt-out)) – that supports the opt-out (//www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrialrelations- dictionary/opt-out) clause in the working time directive, whereby a country can choose not to apply the 48-hour limit on average weekly working hours if an individual worker consents to ‘opt out’ of that limit. Malta had negotiated this agreement before joining the European Union. The latest proposal was the fifth time that the directive has been brought forward for revision. The revised draft of the Finnish presidency still allows Member States to maintain the opt-out clause, but introduces a 60-hour limit on weekly working hours, which would be binding for all Member States, without any opt-out possibility. The average working time for this limit is to be calculated over a six-month period. No average working time limit, however, would apply for company executives, emergency workers and farmers, and on-call time would be treated as working time