Overtime will remain unrestricted, for the time being at least, as negotiations to regulate working hours between the European Parliament and member states failed.
Following a series of final contacts, it was accepted this week that the positions of the EP and that of member states are irreconcilable and, therefore, the proposal should now be scrapped. The proposal, considered to be one of the most controversial in recent times, had been discussed for the past five years at various stages.
The main bone of contention was the opt-out clause allowing member states to go beyond the directive's capped overtime limit of eight hours a week.
The EP stuck to its insistence that overtime must be limited in order to improve the workers' quality of life.
But governments forming the EU Council wanted to retain the possibility of opting out, thus ensuring their work-forces remain flexible.
Malta argued in favour of the opt-out position for the last four years, insisting that it needs a flexible working environment particularly in the tourism and health sectors. The government's position is supported by trade unions and employers.
The failure of the talks in the so- called "conciliation" format, a last stage of negotiations between the EP and member states, is the first in 10 years.
A senior government official said that although Malta would have preferred a compromise allowing also the opt-out option, the failure of talks would still mean that Malta's position would be safeguarded until the Commission decided to make a fresh proposal and initiate a new negotiations that would probably take years.
"We couldn't agree on restricting overtime to just eight hours a week as this is not in our economic interest. Our labour market would have suffered as we are highly dependent on seasonability while certain sectors, such as our health and the security services, cannot be run with these overtime restrictions," he said.
Both the EP and the Czech Presidency, conducting the negotiations on behalf of member states, blamed each other for the failure of the talks.
The head of the EP delegation, Socialist MEP Mechtild Rothe, said the EP negotiation team made several proposals on the opt-out but, for the Council, any attempt to end the opt-out was not acceptable.
On the other hand, the EU Presidency accused MEPs of being rigid, even due to the fact that they will soon have to face an election in June.
"The result of the talks was undoubtedly influenced by the approaching elections to the European Parliament. At this time, the MEPs were not willing to accept a deal that would, however, improve the employees' situation and, at the same time, lead to a more flexible labour market. This is what Europe needs at the time of the economic downturn," said Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Petr Necas, who headed the negotiations with the deputies on behalf of member states.
EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla regretted the failure of the talks and said that the Commission would now reflect to see "how and if it will proceed forward".
According to EU rules, in the absence of an agreement, the directive allowing opt-outs remains in force. However, the Commission can still draft a new proposal from scratch.
Commission sources said a new proposal would take a long time because the Commission's mandate ends in November and this issue would definitely be left to the new Commission to deal with.