EU rethink on 48 hour exemptions
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• The haulage industry is to be consulted by the European Union on the impact of the imposition of a maximum 48hour working week.
Commissioner Padraig Flynn, responsible for the maximum working hours directive, is to publish a White Paper over the next few months to consult the various industries currently exempted from the legislation.
Under the current proposals, truck drivers and transport workers are exempted from the 48-hour maximum working week, But within the EU there are pressures, particularly from French unions, to bring truck drivers into line with other workers.
There is still some confusion as to whether the working time directive will apply to selfemployed owner-drivers as well as those employed by large haulage firms. But it seems clear that any restrictions would have
exemption for owner-drivers would put employed drivers at an economic disadvantage. The Freight Transport Association says it will resist any attempts to introduce the maximum hours limits, claiming they would have disastrous consequences for its members.
A spokeswoman for Flynn says the White Paper will be published during the "first half of the year" and only once it has been widely consulted upon would any changes to the legislation be made. "No decision will be made before 1998 at the earliest," she says.