Securing the best deal

One of the first issues on which the five persons who will be elected to represent Maltese and Gozitans in the European Parliament will have to start a coordinated exercise on is that related to the Working Time Directive (WTD). The WTD is Euro-jargon for that directive governing the number of hours for which a worker can be engaged.

The main point of interest for Maltese and Gozitan workers in this directive is the point related to the opt-out clause. As a rule, the WTD states that a worker cannot be engaged for more than an average of 48 working hours weekly. Given our employment legislation, this means that overtime is capped at eight hours. Nevertheless, the opt-out clause allows workers to give their consent to be engaged for more than these eight hours. This is an important point since many workers locally consider overtime payments as part and parcel of the pay-check. Furthermore, banks and financial institutions seem to take these payments into consideration when giving out loans. Thus, who can blame a worker who wants to be allowed to work extra hours at higher rates, as he or she are used to do, in order to comply with mortgage repayments?

Before last year's election, both myself and the then deputy leader of the Malta Labour Party, Joe Brincat, had warned that the European Union was due to revise the WTD and, especially, the opt-out clause. We were widely criticised for putting forward this argument. Now, unfortunately, we are being proven right.

Last week, the European Commission called on social partners on a European level to give their input to find a solution on how to reform the WTD. There are three issues on which this consultation will focus.

The first is the working time of health professionals who work on call and how their working time is due to be calculated.

Secondly, it is being suggested that the calculation of the average working time be taken over a longer period than the current four months.

Finally, the Commission wants to tackle the opt-out issue in order to rule out abuses. Only the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta are currently using this opt-out clause.

Let us focus on this last point and state that it is extremely positive that the European Commission wants to see that no abuse take place. In other words, the Commission wants to make sure that those workers who do not want to work more than 48 hours are not made to sign some sort of consent form under some veiled or not-so-veiled threat.

Nevertheless, the solution cannot be a rigid one. Those workers who "need" to work more, as do a number in our country in order to stay in order with their commitments, should be allowed to do so.

Apart from listing the total elimination of the opt-out clause as already suggested by the European Parliament, the European Commission also put forward another three alternative approaches, namely:

1. Strengthen the conditions under which the individual opt-out can be applied, to ensure it is truly voluntary and is not abused in practice.

2. Allow derogations from the provisions on the basis of collective agreements or agreements between social partners.

3. Allow derogations which would also allow individual opt-outs in case of employees who are not trade union members.

I think that given these three alternatives, there is room for negotiations and a solution that can satisfy many of the players and be suitable for our local situation.

One final point. One of the promoters of the elimination of the opt-out clause from the WTD has been the Party of European Socialists, of which the Malta Labour Party is a member organisation.

Nevertheless, Labour, through George Vella, a member of the PES presidium, has made its position clear.

The British Labour Party has concurred with this position and is also against the outright elimination of the opt-out clause. Other members of the Socialist group are moving in favour of this direction.

Given that nationally there is consensus on this issue, the duty of Maltese Labour members of the European Parliament will be that of lobbying in favour of this position. Similarly, Nationalist members must secure the most possible number of votes from the European Popular Party.

I am also sure that whether they are elected or not, the Greens will also help in securing the best deal.

Mr Muscat is a Labour candidate for the European parliament elections.

www.josephmuscat.com