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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has warned that a recent European Court judgment on the Working Time Directive will lead to a large increase in red tape for firms.
The judgment said that the UK Government had not been properly enforcing all aspects of the Working Time Directive,
and found that the Government’s official guidance to employers should have been much stronger in ensuring lunch and other breaks are taken up by staff.
The Advocate General’s Opinion will now be considered by the full Court.
Alan Tyrrell, FSB National Employment Chairman, commented: "This is a potentially disastrous judgment for British business and we fervently hope that the full Court will reject it in due course.
"For an employer to prove that all employees have taken all the breaks to which they are entitled will place a heavy burden on small firms.
"Our members already spend an average of 28 hours per month filling in forms and no doubt this will add further to the pile of paperwork to be waded through.
"The current guidance from the DTI is eminently sensible where employees can take their breaks and employers have to let them do so. But crucially workers in the UK are not forced to take their breaks if they do not wish to do so.
"To change this guidance, as this judgment would seek to do, will reduce flexible working options when the Government is encouraging our members to increase such practices.
"When the EU is committed to increasing economic activity and employment, such a decision flies in the face of reason. If the EU's goals on the Lisbon agenda are to be reached then the full ECJ
has to reject this opinion.
"Flexible working practices allow small firms and their employees to work to
best suit their situation. Removing this flexibility will undoubtedly restrict
small business growth."
Source:
RedAlert
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