MEPs want rules on working hours to apply to self-employed drivers

Euro-MPs voted today against the Commission's proposal that self-employed drivers be exempted from the 2002 working time directive on the road transport industry.

MEPs from the Employment and Social Affairs Committee believe that self-employed bus and lorry drivers must be subject to the same rules as those employed by companies.

Amendments by the S&D, Green and GUE groups rejecting the Commission proposal to exempt self-employed drivers from the 2002 working time directive - on the grounds of drivers' health and safety, road safety and rules on competition - were adopted by 30 votes to 19, with no abstentions.

The existing Directive 2002/15/EC on drivers' working hours envisaged that self-employed bus and lorry drivers would come under the directive's rules as of 23 March 2009, unless the Commission issued a proposal to the contrary before that date.

The Commission unveiled a proposal in October 2008 which argued there was no need to include self-employed drivers in the directive. Instead the problem of the "false self-employed" - drivers who are officially self-employed but are in fact not free to work for more than one client - should be tackled.

The Employment Committee's report, drafted by Edit Bauer (EPP, SK), backed the Commission's approach and, to help combat the problem of false self-employed, suggested a precise definition of a self-employed driver. Being in favour of leaving self-employed drivers out of the directive's scope, Edit Bauer argued there was no precedent for regulating the working hours of self-employed people.

The amendments rejecting the Commission's proposal must still come up for a vote before the full Parliament.

Currently self-employed drivers, like all commercial drivers, are subject to Regulation 561/2006 on driving hours and rest periods but not the directive on drivers' working time.

Directive 2002/15/EC covers activities such as driving but also other aspects of working hours in road transport such as loading and unloading, assistance to passengers, cleaning and maintenance, and formalities with police and customs. It sets a weekly limit of 48 hours a week on average, which can rise to 60 hours a week provided the average of 48 hours a week over a four-week period is not exceeded.

Parliament had rejected the Commission's text at first reading at its plenary session in May 2009 and referred the matter back to the Employment Committee. At the start of the new parliamentary term the Committee decided, by a narrow majority, to examine the matter afresh rather than simply confirming the previous Parliament’s rejection. This led to this week’s vote, which, in the end, followed the same line of rejecting the Commission proposal.

Transport Committee MEPs insisted that lorry drivers who break rules on working time, rest periods or working conditions should pay clear and comparable penalties for any given offence, no matter where it takes place in the EU, said MEPs. They criticized wide disparities in EU Member States' fines for similar offences, and said they should be harmonised, in the interests of road safety and fair competition.