EC hours plan blasted
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I The latest European Cornfission proposals on drivers' ours for lorries and coaches re "nonsense" and will be reisted by the Government, toads and Traffic Minister Peer Bottomley has assured In a debate on the draft regdations, just before MPs dearted for the summer recess, 3ottomley declared that the woposals were wrong and that hey would bring disadvantages uther than advantages.
He particularly attacked the )roposal to return to the "rollng week" system, where a )eriod of seven days could start at any time. The Government was also unhappy about the proposal to limit driving to nine hours in any 24-hour period. At the moment, the driving period limits were defined as coming between daily rest periods and the latest proposals seemed to be an attempt to limit total working time.
Bottomley reported that, while proposals on tachograph checks were acceptable to the Government, the idea that all 12 member-states should carry out simultaneous checks on four specified days a year was "naïve".
Labour spokesman Tony Lloyd was assured by Bottom ley that the proposals would not allow drivers to work two, consecutive 56-hour weeks, as the regulations talked of a 90hour fortnight with a maximum of 56 hours in any one week.
Lloyd asserted that the Department of Transport was wrong in its claims that the 45minute break should be taken after the initial four-and-a-halfhour driving period, maintaining that the police believed the 45minute break should be part of this period.
Bottomley assured MPs that the latest Commission proposals on drivers' hours had no support from anyther Common Market country.