Organisation of working time to cover sectors and activities excluded from Directive 93/104/EC

At first reading under cooperation procedure, the European Parliament adopted the report by Raphaël M.G. Chanterie (PPE,BE), which approves the Commission proposal for a Council directive amending directive 93/104/EC of 23/11/93 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time to cover sectors and activities excluded from the directive, subject to amendments, notably in the following areas: - noting that neither the Commission in its proposal of 20/09/90, nor the European Parliament in its opinion of 20/02/91 has accepted the exclusion of certain sectors and certain activities from the relevant directive; - stating (more generally than the original proposal) that the health and safety of workers must be protected at the workplace, not because they belong to one particular sector or activity, but because they are workers; - as regards sectoral legislation for mobile workers, stating that a complementary and parallel approach is needed in the provisions on transport safety and the health and safety of the workers concerned; - stating that account needs to be taken of the specific nature of both activities at sea and of doctors in training; - suggesting that the Commission should bring forward a new proposal on the question of Sunday working during the global revision of the proposed directive; - recalling the judgment of the Court of Justice that directive 93/104/EC accords with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality set out in the EC Treaty; - extending the definition of mobile worker within the meaning of the proposed directive to include personnel employed in rail or road passenger transport services, who work on scheduled services covering a distance of not more than 50 kilometres; - defining share-fishermen within the meaning of the directive as crew members of a fishery vessel whose remuneration consists solely of a share in the vessel's yield/proceeds; - shortening the transitional period for the derogation of doctors in training from the provisions on maximum weekly working time from 7 to 4 years; - including share fishermen in the new provisions proposed by the Commission with regard to mobile workers and offshore work; - modifying the provisions in relation to determining reference periods for the calculation of average working times.�