20th May 2005
A DELEGATION yesterday handed a letter to a North-East MEP protesting at the proposed 48-hour limit to the working week.
The protestors, led by former Metric Martyr Neil Herron, delivered the letter to Stephen Hughes - one of the region's three members of the European Parliament - at his offices in Durham.
Members of the European Parliament have voted to end Britain's opt-out of the Working Time Directive -the legislation that restricts employees to a maximum 48-hour week.
Mr Herron said: "We do not need a European politician operating outside our democracy telling me how many hours I can work.
"We have just had a General Election where the Labour Party stood on a platform to continue the opt-out, and it is going to be overruled by people outside the boundaries of our elected Government."
Mr Hughes said the change, if it was passed, would protect the nine per cent of the UK workforce currently working more than 48 hours a week from exploitation.
He said: "This is about the wellbeing of the individual, getting the balance between work and family life right.
"Firstly, it is wrong in principle to have an opt-out of health and safety legislation.
"Secondly, you have to ask whether we top the league of marital breakdown and teenage pregnancy because mothers and fathers are working every hour that God sends.
"Thirdly, if employers can simply work a body to death, then they won't invest more in productivity. There is a lot of misunderstanding about it and a lot of deliberate peddling of misunderstanding.
"People have said this is an infringement of individual choice, but in society we do interfere in individuals' choices.
"We do not have a choice to drive after seven pints of beer or work on a building site without a hard hat."
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