THE European Parliament will vote in December on a proposal by its Employment Committee for a revision of the Working Time Directive which currently limits the working week to 48 hours.
The committee wishes to scrap Britain's opt out from this Directive which was negotiated by the last UK Conservative Government and confirmed in June 2008 by this Labour Government. The opt out enables British workers to choose whether they wish to work more hours than the prescribed 48 hour week.
I was one of the four British Conservative MEPs who voted in the Employment Committee with nine other MEPs to retain Britain's opt out. Regrettably, we lost to the votes of 35 socialist MEPs led by UK Labour MEP Stephen Hughes.
Whether Britain can continue to retain this opt out from the Working Time Directive is now for the full European Parliament to decide in December.
I sincerely hope that by the time of the European Parliament vote on this directive that Gordon Brown and his ministers will bring Labour MEPs back into line to vote for Britain's opt out.
In the current economic climate, it is not in the interests of British business to have further restrictions on its productivity or for British workers to be prevented from working overtime to pay their household bills.
Giles Chichester
Conservative MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar