EU-wide agreement signed on inland waterways working time

Representatives of employers and trade unions in the inland waterways sector signed in February 2012 a Europe-wide agreement on working time. The agreement should now be implemented by an EU Directive, thereby exempting inland waterways from the scope of the general Working Time Directive.

Inland waterways

The transport of cargo and passengers on inland waterways (rivers, canals, etc) is a fairly small sector across the EU in employment terms, with an onboard workforce estimated by the European Commission at around 35,000. Of the 29 member states, 20 have inland waterways, and 12 of these have an interconnected waterway network. Inland waterways transport is most significant in Germany, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands and Romania. In the UK, the sector is small, with a workforce estimated at around 2,000.

EU-level dialogue between representatives of employers and trade unions in inland waterways dates back to the 1960s, and since 1999 the industry has had a formal sectoral social dialogue committee, supported by the European Commission. Employers are represented on the committee by:

• the European Barge Union (EBU), which has as members 11 national inland waterways employers' organisations from nine countries (not including the UK); and
• the European Skippers Organisation (ESO), which brings together eight organisations representing independent inland waterways operators in five countries (again not including the UK).

Trade unions are represented by the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF), whose membership includes most unions with members in inland waterways across Europe, including Unite, the RMT and Nautilus in the UK.

The inland waterways sectoral social dialogue committee has produced a number of joint opinions, declarations and similar texts on topics such as training, working conditions, social security and EU transport policy.

Sectoral working time Directives

The EU Working Time Directive - originally adopted in 1993 and now consolidated in Directive 2003/88/EC (external website) - sets out minimum EU-wide rules on various aspects of the organisation of working time, aimed at protecting workers' health and safety. As well as limiting workers' average weekly working time to 48 hours (with a number of possible exemptions), the Directive sets minimum daily and weekly rest periods and minimum paid annual leave, and deals with issues such as night work, shift work and rest breaks.

The original 1993 Directive excluded many transport sectors from its scope, on the grounds that specific legislation was needed to deal with their particular working time issues. The sectors concerned were air, rail, road, sea, and inland waterway and lake transport. In 2000, the Directive was amended (by Directive 2000/34/EC) to bring these sectors within its scope, unless they are covered by a sector-specific Directive. There are currently four such sectoral working time Directives, covering:

• seafarers (1999/63/EC);
• mobile workers in civil aviation (2000/79/EC);
• mobile workers in road transport (2002/15/EC); and
• mobile workers engaged in certain cross-border rail services (2005/47/EC).

The European Commission's preferred route for drawing up sector-specific Directives was to ask the EU-level social partners (that is, employers and trade unions) in the industry concerned to negotiate an agreement on this issue. Under EU Treaty provisions (currently enshrined in arts.154 and 155 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union), such agreements can be given legal force across the EU by means of Directives. The social partners reached agreements relating to seafarers, mobile civil aviation workers and mobile workers in cross-border rail services, and the relevant sectoral Directives are based on these agreements.

The inland waterways sector is currently covered by the general Working Time Directive. However, the sectoral social partners believe that the Directive does not take into account the specific needs of their industry. They therefore started negotiations in January 2008 over a sectoral agreement on the subject. After more than four years of talks, the EBU, ESO and ETF signed an agreement on certain aspects of the organisation of working time in inland waterways on 15 February 2012.

New working time rules for inland waterways

The agreement aims to take account of the distinctive working conditions in the inland waterways sector, while ensuring a high level of protection for workers' health and safety. The signatories also hope that the agreement will help the inland waterways sector attract and retain suitably qualified staff.

The agreement covers both crew members and shipboard personnel, such as cleaners or catering workers on passenger vessels. They key provisions are as follows:

• The normal working day is eight hours. This may be exceeded, as long as total working time does not amount to more than 48 hours per week. The 48-hour limit may be calculated on average over a reference period of up to 12 months.
• Working time may not exceed 14 hours in any 24-hour period or 84 hours in any seven-day period.
• If a working time schedule involves more working days than rest days, average weekly working time may not exceed 72 hours over a four-month period.
• Annual working time may not exceed 2,304 hours, minus national public holidays.
• Workers may not work on more than 31 consecutive days.
• Total working time at night (between 11pm and 6am) may not exceed 42 hours per week.
• Workers must have at least 10 hours of rest every day, at least six hours of which must be uninterrupted, and a total of at least 84 hours of rest every week. Some weekly rest days may be temporarily postponed, provided that these minimum standards are always respected.
• In an emergency, workers may be required to do any necessary work to ensure the safety of the vessel, passengers or cargo, until the normal situation is restored.
• Workers have a right to at least four weeks' paid annual leave.
• Workers have a right to annual health checks paid for by their employers.
• Employers must maintain detailed working time records for all workers on board vessels.
• The agreement lays down special rules for seasonal work.

Implementation

The signatories have asked the Commission to make their agreement legally binding across the EU by means of a Directive to be adopted by the Council of the EU. The effect would be to remove inland waterways from the coverage of the general Working Time Directive.

The Commission will now assess the representative status of the signatory parties, their mandate and the legality of the agreement's provisions in relation to EU law. If it is satisfied, it will propose a Directive to implement the agreement.

Reactions

László Andor, the EU commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, welcomed the agreement, commenting: "The inland waterway transport is one of the key modes of transport in the EU in economic terms. Good working conditions and adequate rest periods are essential for the safety of traffic, the crews and passengers on all such vessels." He added: "The sectoral social partners are best placed to know the special characteristics and demands of work in inland waterways transport. They have demonstrated again today that they can find concrete solutions for specific problems and that they contribute to setting high-level European standards."

Nick Bramley, the president of the ETF's inland waterways section, said: "With this agreement, the sector finally has a European-wide arrangement on working time that offers the possibility to mould the implementation according to specific sector-related needs between clear boundaries while protecting the social conditions." Myriam Chaffart, the ETF's political secretary for inland waterways, added: "This agreement is a victory for the European social dialogue, demonstrating that negotiations in a constructive atmosphere lead to a balanced agreement to the benefit of the workers, employers and the overall sector."

The EBU described the agreement as a "major step forward".

The inland waterways agreement illustrates the increasing role of the social dialogue in regulating employment conditions across the EU in some sectors. As well as the agreements on working time in various transport sectors, other recent examples of EU-level sectoral agreements that have been made legally binding by Directives include accords on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector (implemented by Directive 2010/32/EU) and implementation of the International Labour Organisation's Maritime Labour Convention (implemented by Directive 2009/13/EC). Negotiations are currently under way over a working time agreement for international rail services.

More widely, the cross-industry EU-level social partners (that is, those covering the whole EU economy rather than a specific sector) started negotiations in December 2011 over a possible agreement on amending the general Working Time Directive. Given the very different positions of trade unions and employers, these negotiations are likely to be extremely difficult. However, the Commission argues that the inland waterways accord "shows that social partners are able to agree on working time issues", which is "encouraging" for the cross-industry talks on the subject.

This article was written by Mark Carley, international editor.