Commission plans will keep 48-hour opt-out option

The proposal follows a consultation exercise in which the Commission asked the social partners to consider three issues arising from the Directive: the extent to which "on-call" time spent by health professionals should be counted as working time; how to tackle alleged "abuses" of the opt-out from the 48-hour week; and the reference period for calculating the 48-hour week.

The Directive currently provides that workers must not work longer than 48 hours a week, including overtime.