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48-hour workweek cap move irks Britain

STRASBOURG, France - Long-haul truckers driving through the night. Exhausted surgeons with scalpels. Overworked firefighters rushing from blaze to blaze.

Amid concern that fatigue leads to accidents, the European Union Parliament voted Wednesday to abolish loopholes that give member states - especially Britain - a way around the bloc's 48-hour maximum workweek.

The dispute strikes at the heart of a growing debate within the EU on balancing labor and leisure, profits and safety.

The measure would get rid of a clause that allows employees to work longer hours if they agree with their employer to do so. It still needs backing from EU governments to become law, and Britain may have enough countries on its side to block it.

Still, Wednesday's vote is likely to embolden Britain's strong Euro-skeptic camp in a crucial year of referendums on a proposed European constitution that envisions ever closer European integration.

In London, Digby Jones, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said the proposed labor changes interfere with the "freedom of choice of the average British subject, and that is something we've got to stop."

"France and Germany are saddled with these rigid labor policies and huge unemployment, and here we are with the most successful economies in Europe, we've got the most flexible labor market, people earn good money - and here is Brussels trying to do away with it," Jones said.

Countries like France and Sweden have long believed in social protections aimed largely at guaranteeing balance between work and private life. In fact, France had a 35-hour workweek - much shorter than the EU's 48-hour maximum - until lawmakers watered down that legislation in March.

By contrast, Britain bases its business culture on an American model that keeps government interference at a minimum in the belief that freedom promotes growth and opportunity. New EU members in Eastern Europe also want flexible work rules to help them become as rich as more established EU states.

Some European countries use the labor loophole mainly for their health and emergency services. But in Britain it is widely used across the private and public sector.

EU employment ministers are set to discuss the issue again at a meeting in Luxembourg in June.

In addition to Britain, eight countries, including EU heavyweight Germany, are in favor of retaining the opt-out, said Stephen Hughes, a British Labor Party member of the European Parliament. Another bloc, led by Sweden, France, Greece, Belgium and Hungary, is against it.

[Last modified May 12, 2005, 00:31:16]