Wednesday May 11, 2005

One-size-fits-all Working Time Directive

Posted by Rob (#1) on May 11, 2005 15:55 CEST

The Beeb reports UK representatives and business join my criticism of the Working Time Directive and the proposed changes such as cancelling the opt-out:

Conservative MEP Philip Bushill-Matthews described the proposals as "sheer nonsense."

"Quality of life is an issue, but why should politicians in Brussels decide that the way for people to get quality of life is to follow rules on a one-size-fits-all basis laid down at EU level?"

Business groups in the UK also voiced disappointment.

I could not have phrased it better than Bushill-Matthews: for a Union carrying the slogan "united in diversity" the EU is basing way too much legislation on commonality.

A small personal bright side: I recently read reports that the inactive part of on-call time will not count towards the 48 hour maximum a week after all, even though I cannot find any reference to such changes whatsoever in 2003/88/EC, to my knowledge the latest document on the Working Time Directive. However it does seem that on-call time actually means time spent at the workplace and that it does not cover remote technical support at all, which would be a blessing for my employer. Maybe technicians and software engineers can continue to be flexible workers after all.

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The kids aren't alright

Anglosphere

Posted by Rob (#1) on May 11, 2005 18:36 CEST

It's unfair to people like me who love a party, but Britain's kids are starting to behave:

BRITAIN'S youngsters are turning their backs on binge drinking, smoking and clubbing, according to a surprising new survey.

Today's 15 - 24 year olds are swapping raves for restaurants, lager for wine and even see having fun as less important than their counterparts a decade ago did, an in-depth probe into changing attitudes reveals.

Unfair but fortunately not as bad as it sounds:

This new sober attitude is born out by the fact the number viewing having fun as the most important thing in life has dropped from 88 per cent to 74 per cent.

Any talk about sober attitudes should not be taken seriously as long as three out of four Britons are still fab party animals. For all I care the number may drops to 51 per cent, provided the ones who keep clubbing are gals.

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