Britain breaks EU law on work time limits

Britain has broken European law by allowing companies too much leeway to ignore EU rules that limit the working time of employees, the European Union's top court ruled yesterday.

In a case highlighting a debate in Europe over how far workers should be protected, the court backed the European Commission which sued the British government over guidelines it issued to employers on how to interpret the law.

"The guidelines are liable to render the right of workers to daily and weekly rest periods meaningless because they do not oblige employers to ensure that workers actually take the minimum rest periods," the European Court of Justice said.

Under EU law, workers should get a minimum daily uninterrupted rest period of 11 hours, plus 24 hours of additional rest every week.

In a statement, the court said Britain failed to fulfil its obligations under the EU's Working Time Directive.

Britain transposed the EU law into national legislation in 1998 and the government issued guidelines for employers and workers to help them understand what the law meant.

The guidelines, which will now have to be immediately changed, say employers had to ensure workers could take their rest but were not required to ensure they actually did so.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, said the guidelines encouraged non-compliance with the rules and took Britain to the Court of Justice.

"Employers must ensure that workers have rest periods, it is a matter of health and safety and is not something that can be traded off," Commission spokesman Katharina von Schurnbein told reporters.

But Syed Kamall, a British Conservative member of the European Parliament, said the ruling would make Britain's labour market less flexibile by preventing employees from opting to work more to bolster their pay packets.

"This is a kick in the teeth for British workers who may want to work longer hours to pay for extra bills or family holidays," he said in a statement.

British workers have the second longest working week in the 25-member EU.