Time of custody, the time of sanctions is approaching… for the Member States

(B2) Despite all the efforts of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, the 27 Ministers of Labor and Social Affairs failed, on December 5, once again, to agree on a new text for "labour interim" and the modification of the "working time" directive of 2003. The opposition of the British (Gordon Brown threatened the Portuguese not to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon) allied to the Germans (an exchange of good practices dating from the OPA) got the better of the desire for a global agreement. This means that the case law of the Court of Justice of the EC on on-call time (and watch rooms) remains applicable: on-call time, even inactive, must be considered as working time. The European Commissioner for Employment, Vladimir Spidla, moreover only wanted to leave Ministers a few weeks to come to an agreement. “I count in days and weeks, not in months” he asserted. Otherwise, he confirmed his desire to "initiate procedures" against offending countries. "Only two Member States are in compliance with the directive and the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, cannot remain inactive", he added. "Message well received" replied the French Minister of Labour, Xavier Bertrand, who showed himself open to compromise - "everything that we feel possible and within reach will no longer be tomorrow" — to pass this modification, considered essential by a number of European States, particularly in the East (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary) confronted with major unrest in the health and social sector.

(NGV)
(photo: © Council of the European Union)