MEPs voted overwhelmingly in May to scrap the right of workers to opt out of the maximum 48-hour working week set by the Working Time Directive.
Whether or not this becomes law across all 25 EU member states is now in the balance because EU employment ministers failed to reach agreement at a meeting of the Employment and Social Affairs Council (June 2-3 2005).
Certainly many employers will be holding their breath at the prospect of losing the flexibility that the opt-out provision brings. And the uncertainty around the current situation is likely to continue throughout the UK's presidency of the EU
Working practices in the marketing industry
It's been common practice in the marketing industry, particularly when hiring new staff, to get them to sign a form agreeing to opt-out of the maximum limit on working hours.
According to a recent survey produced by the Institute of Directors, over 40% of all UK organisations have made use of the opt-out. This is in stark contrast with our co-workers in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Luxembourg who appear to work to the 48-hour rule, although these member states are preparing to make exceptions to this rule for workers in certain sectors.
Anyone reading this will no doubt recognise that marketing is probably the least 9am-5pm job in the world. If we all wanted an easy life, we'd become accountants (only joking!).
By its very nature, marketing people need to have the flexibility in order to execute campaigns sometimes at very short notice, organise new product launches sometimes hundreds of miles from HQ and often work unsociable hours in order to get the job done.
The very thought that any of us actually only work a maximum 48-hour week would be absurd (I'm writing this column on Sunday night at 10pm so that I can meet by deadline - Ed. Please note!).
In addition, research by the CIPD shows that over 75% of long-hours workers say that they do so as a result of their own choice. So I guess I'm living proof of that.
As you can imagine, Gordon Brown isn't happy because the more we work, the more money we make and the more tax we pay.
The CBI's Sir Digby Jones on the other hand, argues that while we're tucked up in bed, competitors in China and India are working round the clock and will eventually erode any competitive advantage we may have had over them in the Knowledge Economy.
This scenario reminds me of the pink bunnies on the on TV ad that couldn't keep going because they ran out of power. The ones on Duracell just kept on working. Let's hope no one pulls the plug on me.
In the long term, its anyone's guess what the consequences would be if the marketing profession religiously applied the 48-hour rule. My guess is that it would be honoured only in the breach - which doesn't do anything for the reputation of the rule of law, does it?
Working Time Directive
The Working Time Directive currently provides that workers in all sectors, public or private, must not work longer than 48 hours a week, including overtime.
The Directive also specifies requirements for rest periods, breaks and no less than four weeks' paid holiday a year. Its aim is to protect workers from the health and safety consequences of overworking.
UK's opt-out explained
In 1993, the UK negotiated an opt-out which allows member states not to apply the limit to working hours under certain conditions: prior agreement of the individual; no negative fall-out from refusing to opt out; and records kept of working hours of those that have opted out.
The commonsense approach would be to retain the present opt-out regime while tightening the condition for its application. This happens to be the position of the European Commission but it may be at variance with the European Council.
European Parliament opposition
MEPs think that that the Commission's position doesn't go far enough and adopted a report by Spanish MEP Alejandro Cercas calling for the opt-out to be scrapped after three years, by 345 votes to 264 with 43 abstentions.
The MEPs also approved a proposal for all hours where an employee is "on-call", even the "inactive part", to count as working time in most cases.
In addition, MEPs also demanded either a collective agreement or, in cases where workers aren't covered by collective agreements, a mechanism whereby workers have to be consulted in an appropriate way and measures have to be taken to prevent any health and safety risks. They also wanted to achieve the right balance between reconciling work and family life and the need for more flexible organisation of working time.
Upon reading this, you're left feeling that being too prescriptive is the wrong route to take about getting the work-life balance right.
Some of the points made by the European Parliament are reasonable. But removing the flexibility to take account of local conditions isn't.
Ardi Kolah is the author of Essential Law for Marketers (Butterworth Heinemann, 拢25). He is ranked as one of the leading thinkers in marketing in the world by the CIM and is Director of Communications, Imperial College London.