Unions have won a major victory in the ongoing fight for an end to the UK opt-out clause from Europe’s 48 hour working week ceiling.

The European Commission this week warned it was considering proposals to abolish Britain's opt-out.

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Europe's new employment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the current arrangement, exempting UK workers from the maximum 48 hour week if they sign away their rights, should at least be tightened up to halt abuses, if not phased out completely.

The Commissioner issued a challenge to unions and employers across Europe to negotiate an update of the 10-year-old Working Time Directive - otherwise the Commission would produce its own revised proposals. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the Commission decision 'is a defeat for the UK government who have been arguing that the opt-out should simply stay. The Commission has clearly seen through the misleading evidence provided by the UK government. This is great encouragement to our campaign to end the individual opt-out, the only way to stop employers pressurising staff to work long hours.' An earlier letter from TUC to Commissioner Dimas revealed that a UK government submission in support of the opt-out was 'riddled with errors' and 'has seriously misrepresented the situation' in the UK.

Original news article here

Adendum 20-2-05
Sadly there was not enforcment action to end the opt-out so we will have to put up with it until the next review.
The most significant change to be made was that employers who's employees do not sign an opt-out can now average their 48 hour working week over the whole year instead of over the previously used 16 or 17 weeks - this could result in unscrupulous employers, quite legally, asking their employees to work a 96 hour week for 6 months and then giving them the remaining 6 months off as rest.
completely absurb!