UK workers can still work more than 48 hours a week after a new agreement on both an amendment of the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC and a proposed Agency Workers Directive at the EU Employment Council.
Business Secretary John Hutton said the agreement will provide a fair deal for workers, without damaging Britain's economic competitiveness. He added, "Flexibility has been critical to our ability to create an extra three million jobs over the past decade. That flexibility has been preserved by ensuring workers can continue to have choice over their working hours in future years."
The Government said people remain free to earn overtime and businesses retain their flexibility to hire staff for key busy times. Mr Hutton said the proposal on agency working would prevent unfair undercutting of permanent staff. Agency staff will be given equal rights with permanent employees after 12 weeks.
Ben Willmott at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) commented that they would have preferred a longer time period before agency staff qualify for the same rights as permanent staff.
Mr Willmott also said the CIPD was opposed to long hours working, but that it believed reduced hours and improved work-life balance is best achieved through changes in work organisation and through progressive people management rather than a statutory restriction on maximum working hours.
However, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) believes the UK's opt-out, in which individuals can agree not to be subject to the 48-hour limit in the Directive, has hindered progress in reducing excessive long hours. The TUC claim an extra 180,000 people in the UK, making 3.3 million in total, are now working more than 48 hours a week compared with last year.
They argue that the challenging economic climate has meant the long-hours working culture is making its way back into the workplace because employers are more reluctant to recruit new staff and instead work existing employees harder.
