The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers are currently at loggerheads over the working-time rules (see EUM 25, December 2008). MEPs adopted a report in December 2008calling for opt-outs to the EU's existing maximum 48-hour working week to be scrapped and for all time that people spend on-call to be counted as working time. This differs markedly from a common position adopted by national governments in June 2008. This says that opt-outs should be retained and that on-call time should be counted towards the 48 hours only when people are actually required to work.

The EC treaty grants the Council of Ministers four months to react to the Parliament's vote. The two institutions then have a maximum of eight weeks to convene a conciliation committee, which would have a further eight weeks to either find a compromise or decide that agreement is impossible.

The Czechs are keen to ensure that the conciliation committee completes its work before the Parliament breaks up in May for the European elections (June 2009). It has scheduled a ministerial meeting in Prague on 14 January 2009 to assess Member States' positions. Petr Necas, the Czech minister for labour and social affairs, will meet Alejandro Cercas, the Parliament's lead MEP on the dossier, on 20 February 2009. Representatives of the Czech government met Cercas on 7 January to discuss possible dates for the launch of conciliation talks.

Finding a compromise will not be easy. Some 15 EU Member States currently apply opt-outs from the existing working-time rules. Many countries apply them to their healthcare sectors. In a judgment issued in 2003, the European Court of Justice ruled that all medical personnel's on-call duty should be counted as working time.

The UK government, which applies an opt-out to its entire economy, is insisting that a deal should allow it to retain its opt-out and should provide a “solution” to the court judgement.