The Working Time Directive of the European Union (Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time, Official Journal L 307, 13/12/1993 pages 0018–0024; amended by Directive 2000/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 2000) is a collection of regulations concerning hours of work, designed to protect the health and safety of workers. Key features are the limiting of the maximum length of a working week to 48 hours in 7 days, a minimum rest period of 11 hours in each 24 hours and a minimum number of paid leave days per annum.

Like all European Union directives, this is an instrument which requires member states to enact its provisions in national legislation. Although the directive applies to all member states, in the United Kingdom it is possible to "opt out" of the 48 hour working week in order to work longer hours. In contrast, France has passed more strict legislation, limiting the maximum working week to 35 hours, although the French president Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to abolish this legislation.

Contents 1 Case law affecting the Directive 2 Practical Effects 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Case law affecting the Directive

The Working Time Directive has also been clarified and interpreted through a number of rulings in the European Court of Justice. The most notable of these have been the "SIMAP" and "Jaeger" judgements (Sindicato de Médicos de Asistencia Pública v. Conselleria de Sanidad y Consumo de la Generalidad Valenciana, 2000 and Landeshaupstadt Kiel v Norbert Jaeger, 2003). The SIMAP judgement defined all time when the worker was required to be present on site as actual working hours, for the purposes of work and rest calculations. The Jaeger judgement confirmed that this was the case even if the worker was allowed to sleep when their services were not required.

[edit] Practical Effects

These judgements have had a profound effect upon workers who have traditionally been required to be resident on site when on call, particularly junior doctors^[1] and care home workers. Many of these employees are now required to work rotating shifts instead of on call.

A 2009 report from the Royal College of Surgeons of England reported that there were not enough surgeons to fill rotas if they worked only 48 hours a week, that 90% of trainee doctors were exceeding their timetabled hours on a weekly basis, that 55% reported being pressured to falsely declare their actual hours worked, 68% felt that their training and skills had deteriorated as a result of shift-working patterns introduced to meet the working time regulations, and 71% felt the reduction in overall hours had not led to any improvement in their work-life balance^[2].

The authors^[3] of a paper in the British Medical Journal, say that complications and readmissions increase when restrictions are placed on how long surgeons can work. They discuss recent working hours restrictions in America. They say these restrictions had a negative impact on training because surgeons no longer have enough time to practise their skills. In addition surgeons perform fewer complex procedures and first-year trainees assist at 85% fewer operations. Doctors in America are still allowed to work almost twice as long as in Britain under the Directive so the effect in Britain will be greater.

John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “This BMJ paper provides yet more compelling evidence that the need for both cognitive ability and manual dexterity in surgery cannot be shortcut by reduced hours. The European Working Time Directive has limited the hours that are available for surgeons in training well below the 15,000-20,000 the report suggests are optimal – a flexible approach that will allow surgeons to work up to 65 hours we believe will redress this balance and deliver future surgeons who can practice independently.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said that there were no plans to allow doctors to work longer hours. He said: "Our overriding priority will continue to be ensuring that patients experience high quality, safe and effective care in the NHS.” ^[4]

[edit] See also

• Labour and employment law

[edit] References

1. ^ Sunday Telegraph (2006-11-12): Junior doctors walk out from ops
2. ^ "Surgeons call for solution on patient safety and future training as doctors hours are slashed". Royal College of Surgeons of England. 2009-01-23. http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/news/surgeons-call-for-solution-on-patient-safety-and-future-training-as-doctors-hours-are-slashed. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
3. ^ John Tarpley and Gretchen Jackson of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Nashville
4. ^ Article, The Daily Telegraph, 6 Nov 09.

[edit] External links

Documents from the European Council, Commission, and Parliament

• EUR-Lex: Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time; full text of the directive 93/104/EC, with sections
• EUR-Lex: Directive 2000/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 2000 amending Council Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time to cover sectors and activities excluded from that Directive
• Report from the Commission - State of implementation of Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time ("Working Time Directive") (2000)
• Prelex: Procedure file for the Commission's proposal for revision of Working Time Directive, COM/2004/0607. Legal Observatory: The European Parliament's procedure file for the proposal.

Judgments from the European Court of Justice

• Judgment of the Court of 12 November 1996. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v Council of the European Union. Council Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time - Action for annulment. Case C-84/94.
• SiMAP judgement: Sindicato de Médicos de Asistencia Pública v. Conselleria de Sanidad y Consumo de la Generalidad Valenciana, 2000
• Jaeger judgement: Landeshaupstadt Kiel v Norbert Jaeger, 2003

Non-governmental organization documents

• ETUC: Working Time Directive
• EUbusiness: EU working time directive
• European Public Health Alliance: "Impact on health workforce of the working time directive"

With regard to the United Kingdom

• Department of Trade and Industry: Working Time Regulations
• Health & Safety Executive: The Working Time Regulations
• Department of Health: European Working Time Directive
• Guardian (2006-11-06): Q&A: the working time directive
• BBC News (2002-04-29): Q&A: Working time directive
• NWP and the Working Time Directive 2009. In 2009 the maximum hours that junior medical staff in the NHS work will be reduced from 58 to 48 under European law. This is a major challenge for the health service and will require new ways of working to be adopted. NHS National Workforce Projects has been appointed as the lead organisation to help support the NHS in finding and implementing solutions to WTD 2009. We are working with a wide group of stakeholders and piloting solutions that look at new ways of working and communicating best practice in the build up to 2009.