EU IGNORES VOTE TO PROTECT ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: november/december 2008 :: RMTnews 20 T he European Commission ignored a vote in the European Parliament last month to bring self-employed road transport workers within the scope of the road transport working time regulations. The vote by MEPs in the largely consultative assembly seemed like a triumph for the lobbying efforts of RMT and other European Transport Workers Federation (ETF) affiliates demanding the extension of the Sectoral Working Time Directive (Road Transport Directive) to self- employed drivers to make our roads safer and safeguarding UK jobs. This extension to the legislation would have improved road transport health and safety by limiting driving hours for self-employed drivers. This would have prevented directly- employed drivers, whose working hours have been subject to legal limit since 2005, from being undermined by self- employed drivers working dangerously long hours. Unfortunately the Commission ignored the Parliamentary ‘opinion’ favouring the inclusion of the self-employed and instead issued a new proposal to include only the ‘false’ self-employed. This means self-employed drivers may have to wait two years or longer, for protection on working hours as the matter is examined afresh by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. The text of the Commission’s proposal is disappointing in a number of areas, not least, that it maintains the exclusion of genuinely self-employed drivers. It also proposes to weaken the definition of night work from “any work performed during night time” to “a period of work which includes at least two hours work performed during night time”. On the more positive side, it does seek to crack down on bogus self-employment and improve monitoring and enforcement. RMT reps have reported that employers are encouraging drivers to take up self-employed status in order to be exempt from the provisions of the directive. RMT will play a full part in the consultation and campaign with the ETF for extension of the Road Transport Directive to all drivers for the following reasons:- • There is no serious reason to delay extending the coverage of the Directive to self- employed drivers from 2009 as originally envisaged. In fact self-employed drivers should have been included in 2005 when the original Road Transport Directive 2002/15/EC was introduced. • Universal coverage will allow universal monitoring and universal enforcement. This will ensure that all drivers are absolutely clear which working time regulations apply to them and the maximum time limits for driving. • Bringing self-employed drivers into the scope of the Directive ensures that unscrupulous employers do not pressure drivers to take up self-employed status. • The liberalisation of cabotage rules which allow drivers to undertake three jobs in a seven-day period additional to their original job means that vigilance is required to ensure that all drivers are not working excessive hours, especially self-employed drivers. • The aim of the Road Transport Directive was to reduce working hours and improve health and safety. RMT is sceptical that this is happening because of Periods of Availability. Nevertheless the industry has an unsafe long-hours culture and is unattractive to new entrants. Bringing all drivers under the terms of the Directive, together with reform of Periods of Availability could drive down hours, improve road safety and make industry a more attractive proposition for new drivers. EU IGNORES VOTE TO PROTECT ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS Copyright © Paul Box /reportdigital.co.uk