The Live Wire



Press Release

Working Time Directive surrender would cost jobs, says FSB

Monday 6 November 2006

Ahead of tomorrow’s Council of Minister’s meeting in Brussels the Federation of Small Businesses called on the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, to resist pleas from other EU member states to water down the UK’s opt out on the Working Time Directive.

The FSB is concerned at the prospect of a proposal from the Finnish EU Presidency to keep the UK opt-out but at the expense of all existing opt-outs having to be re-negotiated and future opt-outs being subjected to increased bureaucracy. This would create an unsustainable red tape burden on small businesses that do not have the resources or capacity to administer such a task.

The Finnish proposal would also unnecessarily complicate the Working Time arrangements by introducing three different reference periods of 12 months, 6 months and 3 months, and two different weekly hour limits of 48 hours and 60 hours. This additional complexity is disproportionate to any good that could be achieved. The proposal also flies in the face of the UK Government’s Better Regulation agenda.

The Federation of Small Businesses believes in a flexible labour market and such added regulation would interrupt this flexibility and greatly compromise competitiveness.

Alan Tyrrell, FSB National Employment Chairman, said:

“The Government cannot afford to sell-out the interests of small firms to simply mollify other European Union member states. Alistair Darling should carry on the fight in Brussels defending the interests of British businesses.

“A large increase in bureaucracy to defend the existing opt-out is unacceptable. Small firms employ over 12 million people in the UK but the owners have to spend an average of 28 hours a month filling in forms. That’s nearly 4 working days lost when they could be out growing the business and creating more jobs. Adding to the pile of red tape is not in the interests of the UK economy.

“Surrendering the opt-out would be equivalent to abandoning British businesses but so would allowing it to be watered down with tons more red tape. Alistair Darling must fight for the interests of UK small firms and the millions of people they employ.”



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

Federation of Small Businesses

Federation of Small Businesses

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd