Ministers are considering scrapping the EU Working Time Directive. The news has been met with predictable howls from the usual suspects. This is the ‘health and safety’ law which limits most people’s working hours to 48 hours a week on average, including overtime. It has long been unpopular with employers, who warn it stifles productivity by preventing people from working longer hours. It has also been blamed for NHS waiting times.
Vested interests, regulators and HR managers benefit from regulatory complexity, and are remarkably effective at snuffing out attempts to reduce it
Despite this, following reports it might be ditched, one frenzied SNP MP responded that ‘it feels there is no basic human right that is not under threat from this Tory government’. Unison chief Christina McAnea tweeted that it was ‘ripping up’ worker protections. Paul Nowak, the new TUC leader, trotted out the same old line on Tory ideologues not caring about workers’ rights.
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