Social Affairs Council (Hansard, 19 October 1993)

§ Mr. David Hunt

I and the Minister of State for Employment attended the meeting of the Labour and Social Affairs Council on 12 October in Luxembourg.

The main discussion took place on the draft directive on the protection of young workers. I made it clear that, while the United Kingdom already has strict regulation to protect the health and safety of young workers, the Government could not accept unnecessary restrictions which would prevent the continuation of well-established and harmless patterns of work for young people below minimum school leaving age such as paperboys and girls. Nor could we accept special restrictions on the working hours of 16 and 17-year-olds which were not related to genuine health and safety needs.

In the event, the Council reached agreement at a political level on significant changes to the draft directive to reflect the United Kingdom's concerns. The United Kingdom Government will not be required to implement key parts of articles 8 and 9 of the draft directive dealing with daily and weekly hours of work, and restrictions on night work, for 16 and 17-year-olds for a period of four years after the directive is implemented—that is, a total of six years from final adoption. This exemption is renewable at the end of this period by a Council decision on the basis of a report from the Commission. The agreement reached also ensures that young people below school leaving age can continue, as now, to undertake light work such as newspaper deliveries from the age of 13.

This settlement is a satisfactory one for the United Kingdom, reflecting recognition by the Community of our high standard of health and safety provision overseen by the Health and Safety Commission and our particular national traditions.

The Council also discussed the draft directive on European Works Councils for which unanimity is required. 212W We made it clear that the United Kingdom Government would, if necessary, vote against the text under discussion which is opposed by employers throughout Europe as being unnecessary, unworkable and damaging to European competitiveness. The Belgian Presidency noted that the draft directive would be taken forward by the other 11 member states under the social protocol provisions of the Maastricht treaty once these are in force.

There was also a brief discussion on the draft directive on non-standard employment, which requires unanimity. It was apparent that a number of member states had problems with the existing text and the Presidency decided that further consideration needed to be given to the draft directive before it could be further considered by the Council.

Finally, Commissioner Flynn made a brief presentation on the contents of his forthcoming Green Paper on the Future of European Social Policy and outlined a Commission proposal for a decision on a programme to combat social exclusion.