News
BackThe signs for the interests of HGV and bus drivers were not encouraging with regard to the Directive proposal of the European Commission on the Road Transport (Working Time) Directive: only in September, the Employment Committee of the European Parliament voted with 25 to 24 votes against the rejection of the Directive proposal. Only after massive educational work by AK EUROPA, Vida, the Austrian trade union for transport workers, the European Transport Workers' Federation and other trade union organisations, did the Employment Committee reject the Directive proposal in a second attempt with a clear majority of 30 to 19 votes.
As already reported in our Newsletter some weeks ago, the Directive proposal intends to exempt self-employed drivers from the Road Transport (Working Time) Directive. This, however, carries the risk that many persons working under employment contract would be pushed into pseudo self-employment. The trade union representatives are concerned that the weekly working time could be as much as 86 hours. This is directly associated with a danger to road safety, caused by overtired bus or lorry drivers.
The MEPs had already discussed the Directive proposal during the last legislative period of the European Parliament. Then, a clear majority decided against the proposal. Due to provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, this decision had to be voted on again in the new legislative period. This time, under significantly more difficult circumstanced for AK EUROPA and the trade unionists, as only 60 % of MEPs are regarded as having close industrial ties.
And indeed, in spite of the information work of the labour representatives, in September 2009, the Employment Committee voted with 24 to 25 votes against the rejection of the proposal. The last months were dominated by intensive educational work by labour representatives. On 28th April, the European Transport Workers’ Federation even organised a protest of HGVs and a Europe-wide demonstration of lorry and bus drivers in front of the European Parliament.
With success: the Employment Committee of the European Parliament has now voted clearly with 30 to 19 votes against the proposal of the Commission. After the voting success on food labelling this is now the second success of the representation of interests of AK EUROPA concerning a key issue - within a short time and in spite of difficult framework conditions. The final rejection of the Directive proposal now requires the confirmation of the plenum. The vote has been planned for June 2010.
More information:
Draft report on working time in road transport directive of the Employment Committee, European Parliment
The MEPs had already discussed the Directive proposal during the last legislative period of the European Parliament. Then, a clear majority decided against the proposal. Due to provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, this decision had to be voted on again in the new legislative period. This time, under significantly more difficult circumstanced for AK EUROPA and the trade unionists, as only 60 % of MEPs are regarded as having close industrial ties.
And indeed, in spite of the information work of the labour representatives, in September 2009, the Employment Committee voted with 24 to 25 votes against the rejection of the proposal. The last months were dominated by intensive educational work by labour representatives. On 28th April, the European Transport Workers’ Federation even organised a protest of HGVs and a Europe-wide demonstration of lorry and bus drivers in front of the European Parliament.
With success: the Employment Committee of the European Parliament has now voted clearly with 30 to 19 votes against the proposal of the Commission. After the voting success on food labelling this is now the second success of the representation of interests of AK EUROPA concerning a key issue - within a short time and in spite of difficult framework conditions. The final rejection of the Directive proposal now requires the confirmation of the plenum. The vote has been planned for June 2010.
More information:
Draft report on working time in road transport directive of the Employment Committee, European Parliment