No opt-outs
The committee confirmed its first reading position by adopting an amendment stipulating that the non-participation clause should lapse three years after the reformed directive enters force.
The Council had proposed that the working week in the EU should continue to be limited to a maximum of 48 hours, except where a Member State invoked a non-participation clause. This would have allowed workers to agree to work longer, subject to certain limits: no more than 60 hours on average a week when calculated over a period of three months or 65 hours where there is no collecting agreement and “when the inactive period of on-call time is considered as working time.”
On-call time considered working time
On-call time means "any period during which the worker has the obligation to be available at the workplace in order to intervene, at the employer's request, to carry out his activity or duties." This issue principally concerns medical staff.
For the Council, the inactive period of on-call time should not be considered as working time unless national legislation, a collective agreement or an agreement between the social partners provides otherwise. This "inactive period" is when the worker is on-call but no in fact called upon to carry out his or her duties.
In their vote, MEPs in the committee recognise that there is a difference between active and inactive on-call time, and that the latter can be calculated in different way, but they nevertheless insist that the full period of on-call time, including the inactive period, should be counted as working time.
Compensatory rest periods
Where workers have not been able to take their normal rest periods, they should be granted compensatory rest periods. According to the Council’s common position, it is for the Member States to determine what is a reasonable period within which such compensatory rest should be granted. The EP committee, on the other hand, decided that such compensatory rest periods should be granted at the end of the working period, in accordance with applicable legislation or an agreement between the social partners.
MEPs also adopted amendments which aimed at clarifying the situation of workers covered by more than one employment contract: working time in this case should be calculated as the sum of the period of work undertaken under each contract.
In addition, they specified the categories of managers who are not covered by the directive: chief executive officers (or people in comparable positions), senior managers directly subordinated to them and persons who are directly appointed by the board of directors.
