Gap between agreed and actual working time across the EU remains wide
The actual working week for full time workers stood at 39.7 hours across the 27 EU Member States in 2011, an average of 1.6 hours more than the agreed working hours, according to Eurofound's latest annual update of working time developments.
Eurofound's annual update on working time developments looks at the time spent at work across all Member States of the European Union and Norway.Collective agreements set the working time conditions for an average of 3/4 of all workers across the EU, with large differences between countries.
Across the 27 EU Member States, full-time employees in Romania worked the longest weekly hours in 2011 – 41.3 hours, the same as in 2010. They were followed by employees in Luxembourg (40.7), Germany (40.6), Estonia and the UK (both 40.5), Austria and Bulgaria (both 40.3), and the Czech Republic and Poland (both 40.2).
Employees in Finland worked the shortest hours (37.8). This was 3.5 hours less than their counterparts in Romania or 4.5 weeks of work in Romania in a full year.
The report is available at http://bit.ly/WTupd12
Meanwhile, following proposals from social partners, the European Commission has decided to extend negotiations over changes to the Working Time Directive to the end of 2012.
In 2010, the Commission began a consultation process with relevant social organisations representing management and labour, including the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
With negotiations on-going, the Commission has said it will not put forward proposals until the negotiations conclude.
In general, EAHP understands that there appears to be little desire amongst the negotiating parties for a completely reworked Directive. Rather discussions are in favour of a reworking around prominent European Court of Justice cases (e.g. SiMAP, Jaeger) dealing with the definition of working time and the timing of compensatory rest.
More information here.
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