“le plat pays”

Today’s vote represents a victory for all workers in Europe and a clear display of the crucial role of the European Parliament on issues that affect citizens directly.

Després de nombroses manifestacions arreu, aquest matí s’ha votat en segona lectura a Estrasburg l’informe del Parlament Europeu sobre la revisió de la Directiva d’ordenació del temps de treball, més coneguda com la Directiva de les 65 hores.

After several demonstrations, this morning has been voted in second reading in Strasbourg the European Parliament report regarding the revision of the directive regulating the working time, better known as the Directive of 65 hours. It was a review of the 1993 one, which established basic principles, such as the maximum working time per week, the daily and weekly rest periods, and the duration of night work.

After long negotiations inside the Parliament, the rapporteur, the Spanish Socialist Alejandro Cercas, has achieved the support of the majority of the European Parliament to make Member States respect the maximum of 48 hours per week, and make disappear the opting-out (non-application of this maximum) agreed in 1993 by the United Kingdom. Thus, after a transitional period of 3 years, it will be prohibited that employers negotiate directly with workers the duration of working time, with a limit of 60 or 65 hours a week, as proposed to the British and a respect for the limit of 48 hours will be assured.

A més, ha aconseguit que, en la línia de les sentències del Tribunal de Justícia de la Unió Europea, es consideri com a efectiu i, per tant, com a temps de treball, el temps de guàrdia -inclosos els períodes inactius, per exemple, quan un metge dorm a l’hospital-, qüestió que a Espanya afecta particularment el personal sanitari.

It has also been ensured that, in line with the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it will be considered as effective and therefore as working time, time of guard duty, including the idle periods, for example when a physician-hospital sleep, which affects particularly in Spain health personnel. And also, that compensation breaks will be granted after periods of work.

Finally, in order to improve reconciliation between work and personal life, the European Parliament has also approved the right of workers to request changes to timetables and patterns of work, and the duty of employers of taking into account of these demands .

Then, the revision of this directive will collect the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union in employment in the field of guards duty and of working time, and strengthen labour laws of all workers of the Union, which increases safety and security.

Tanmateix, després del rebuig del Parlament Europeu d’una proposta que era totalment regressiva, ara els Governs dels 27 Estats Membres hauran de tornar a negociar el text i, per tant, s’obre un període de negociació de 90 dies entre el Parlament i el Consell, anomenat de conciliació, que en cas d’acabar sense acord, faria decaure el text. However, after the European Parliament’s rejection of a proposal that was fully back, now the governments of the 27 Member States will have to re-negotiate the text, and therefore a period of 90 days of negotiations between Parliament and The Council called for conciliation has been opened. In case that there were not any agreement, the text would be declinedOn the other hand, if we reach an agreement, the states will have three years to adapt their laws to the new Directive.

Brussels, 17 December 2008

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 5:58 pm and is filed under European Politics, The European Parliament is concerned with citizens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.