Union fury over DOT opt-out plan for Sr working week
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• by Karen Mlles The Transport and General Workers Union is launching a furious campaign against the Government after discovering UK truck drivers could become the only ones in Europe to be exempt from the shorter working week.
In a move which has enraged the T&G leadership, Transport Minister Lord Whitty says he wants truck drivers to have the right to opt-out from the European Commission's proposed Working Time Directive. This is designed to restrict the working week of Europe's 5.6 million truck drivers to 48 hours.
A DOT spokesman explains: "We are looking for a flexible and workable directive., we don't believe they should be denied the right to work more than 48 hours. If we are able to secure the opt-out, drivers would still be subject to the drivers' hours regs."
Employers are welcoming the intervention. They say that allowing UK drivers to work longer than other European drivers would offset the Continent's lower vehicle excise and fuel duty.
But T&G national secretary Danny Bryan calls the development a "massive let down when more was expected from a Labour government". He wants a phased introduction of shorter hours over the next few years—with no loss of pay.
To get its way the Government will have to convince at least two or three other EU states to vote for an opt-out clause in the proposed directive. ltaly, Spain and Greece are among those which have hinted that they might support such a move. However, the EC, the socialist-led European Parliament and the states taking over the EU's presidency in the next 18 months are all strongly in favour of keeping the Working Time Directive intact.
When Transport Minister John Reid told the EU that he wants UK drivers to be free to continue to work more than 80 hours a week, one source says his comments were received in "stunned silence" by other EU ministers, who were "astonished" that what they see as a socialist government could come up with such an idea.
However, the UK's former Conservative government managed to persuade other EU states to insert an individual opt-out clause into the general Working Time Directive which came into force last October and brought the 48-hour week to most of Europe's others workers. Working time proposals for truck drivers: An average of 48 hours a week over four months, with a maximum of 60 hours in any week. The Directive also restricts night shifts to an average of eight hours over two months with a maximum of 10 hours. ' Working time includes time spent driving, loading, unloading, inspecting loads and on standby.