The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) regrets that the Employment and Social Affairs Council failed to find an agreement on the Working Time Directive and especially on the opt-out. This failure is a bad signal for European workers.

Commenting on this failure, John Monks, ETUC General Secretary, declared: “We regret that there was no progress in Council, as this is yet another signal of Social Europe being stalled. However, we would not have been able to accept just any agreement as “progress”. We would have welcomed an agreement which would have taken on board trade unions concerns”.

The ETUC emphasises that the Working Time Directive concerns the protection of workers against the health and safety risks of long and irregular hours and is surprised that nobody from the Council or the Commission has mentioned the word “workers”.

The ETUC calls now on the European Commission to consult the social partners regarding any further step.

Source: ETUC press release