EC Directives (Hansard, 28 November 1991)

§ Mr. Forth

Under the European Commission's social action programme the following directives directly concerned with terms and conditions of employment have been published but not yet adopted by the Council:

— Protection of Pregnant Women at Work Directive: the Social Affairs Council reached a political agreement on the text on 6 November 1991, with only Italy disagreeing with the substance of the proposal. The Council rejected the costly and damaging proposals for harmonising maternity pay and conditions put forward by the Commission. The Council's formal common position is due to be adopted at the Council on 3 December.
— Directive on the Posting of Workers (Subcontracted Workers): the Government will take a view on this directive following the results of a consultative exercise. The test which the Government will apply to the proposals will he whether they help or hinder free movement of labour and competition in the Community. The directive has not yet been discussed by the Council.
— Atypical Work Directives: these two directives were last discussed by the Council on 18 December 1990. The majority of member states indicated that they had grave difficulties with the proposals and could not support them. These directives would raise employment costs and thereby reduce employment opportunities to part-time workers. The estimated cost to the United Kingdom would be £1 billion. In addition the directives would affect the pay of 1.75 million workers by forcing them to make national insurance contributions for the first time.
— Working Time Directive: this directive will be discussed by the Council for the first time on 3 December. It continues to cause difficulties for many member states. Responses to the Government's consultation exercise made it clear that this proposal would be extremely damaging to the United Kingdom. It would impose on employers crippling annual costs of £5 billion under present conditions.