Vol. 434 No. 2
199 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment if Ireland will be availing of the general exemption which allows an EC member State not to introduce the maximum 48 hour working week until the year 2003; and if it is his intention that Ireland will be similar to Britain in this matter, or whether the limit on the working week will be introduced sooner than in Britain.
The Deputy's question relates to one of the provisions of the proposed EC Directive on the Organisation of Working Time. The position in relation to this proposal is that the EC Council of Ministers adopted a Common Position on the draft Directive on 30 June, 1993. The Commission has referred the Common Position to the European Parliament for consideration. The Parliament, having considered the proposal, may agree that amendments should be submitted to the Commission. The Commission must then decide whether or not to accept such amendments and must resubmit the proposed Directive to the Council for final adoption. This procedure is likely to take some months and may result in amendments to the existing text of the proposal.
The specific point raised by the Deputy refers to a provision in the current text of the proposal which would allow any member State not to apply the proposed 48 hour maximum average weekly working time restrictions. This proposed provision, which shall be reviewed by the Council not later than ten years after the date of final adoption of the Directive, is subject to the introduction of a number of measures by any member State wishing to avail of the provision. These measures would have to ensure that an employer could not require an employee to work longer than 48 hours a week on average without his or her agreement to perform such work and that no worker would be subjected to any detriment because he or she was unwilling to agree to perform such work.
The general implementation date proposed for his Directive is three years after the date on which the proposal is finally adopted. Therefore, it would be premature to speculate on how any of the draft provisions will be implemented, either in this country or in the United Kingdom, particularly as provisions of the Directive may be changed prior to final adoption. Consequently, I am not in a position at this stage to say how implementation of the proposed provision on maximum average weekly working hours might compare with implementation of the provision in the United Kingdom. I would like to assure the Deputy, however, that when the Directive is adopted in its final form, it is my intention to consult fully with all interested parties as regards the formulation of national legislation to implement its provisions.
