• About EIRO
• Annual reports
• Comparative information
• EU level developments
• Representativeness studies
• Survey Reports
• Browse by:
  • Country
  • Date
  • Sector
  • Subject
• Industrial relations links

February 2011

• 25 Feb 2011
  EU Level: Joint declaration on cooperation in the printing sector

  In November 2010, the EU sector-level social partners in the printing industry, UNI Europa Graphical and Intergraf, signed a joint declaration on future cooperation to help the industry face challenges such as rising costs and new technology. This follows a year-long project examining socially responsible restructuring in the sector. The partners will develop a joint action plan over the coming months, focusing on various issues including jobs and skills needs in the sector.

• 25 Feb 2011
  Cyprus: Strike action suspended nationwide

  In December 2010, most of the trade unions in Cyprus called off planned strike action after reaching a framework agreement with the Minister of Finance over proposed fiscal recovery measures. The most representative trade unions in the public and private sector, with the exception of the education unions, called off strikes that had been announced for mid-December. However, government measures were due to be re-examined in late January 2011.

• 25 Feb 2011
  Norway: Women board members recruited same way as men

  A 2010 Norwegian research report examines how women are being recruited to corporate boards, following the introduction of a statutory quota regulating the composition of company boards. The survey finds few systematic variations between women and men when it comes to their educational background and attitudes towards actively engaging in board work. Women are mainly recruited through professional networks rather than family networks or recruitment/consultancy firms.

• 25 Feb 2011
  United Kingdom: Gender pay gap narrows

  Official statistics published in December 2010 showed that the gender pay gap in the median hourly earnings of full-time UK employees shrank to a record low of 10.2% in the year to April 2010. The present coalition government had previously announced that it was abandoning the previous Labour government’s plans to make larger companies undertake gender pay audits and publish the results. It will instead rely on the voluntary efforts of employers to narrow the pay gap.

• 17 Feb 2011
  Netherlands: TNT Post and unions agree to halve the number of forced redundancies

  Faced with a shrinking postal market and increased competition following deregulation, TNT Post gave warning of 4,500 job cuts. After weeks of sporadic strikes the company reached an agreement in principle with Dutch trade unions to reduce this figure to 2,300. At least 1,700 redundant staff will be transferred to profitable divisions of the company. TNT also withdrew its initial demand that concessions on redundancies be linked to an agreement on wage moderation.

• 17 Feb 2011
  Germany: Social partners debate older retirement

  In December 2010, the German government published its first report on increasing the statutory retirement age to 67 years. While it intends to maintain changes introduced in 2007, which raised the age from 65, the German Metalworkers’ Union has called for retirement at 67 to be abandoned. The Employers’ Associations for the Metal and Electrical Industry, meanwhile, has highlighted measures already in place to help workers and employers adjust to a longer working life.

• 17 Feb 2011
  Ireland: Impact of government’s four-year plan on minimum wage and sectoral wage agreements

  The Irish government’s four-year economic plan was announced in November 2010 and approved as part of the EU/IMF programme of financial support for Ireland. The plan cuts the national minimum wage by €1 per hour to €7.65 per hour. It also proposes a review of the system of legally binding sectoral wage agreements, an annual saving of €1.2 billion in the public sector wage bill, a reduction in pension income tax relief and an end to tax breaks on trade union subscriptions.

• 17 Feb 2011
  Cyprus: Bargaining deadlocked in metalworking industry

  In November 2010, the Cypriot Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance declared a deadlock in a labour dispute that had arisen over the renewal of a collective labour agreement in the metalworking industry. The deadlock emerged after the employer side rejected the ministry’s mediation proposal. Representatives of employers were locked in a serious dispute with the trade unions on the pay-related part of the agreement which could, ultimately, lead to strike action.

• 17 Feb 2011
  Poland: Eventful year for major trade unions

  Last year was an eventful year for Poland’s main trade unions. All three of the big unions held national congresses and both the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’ and the Trade Unions Forum elected new chairs. While no significant shifts in policy have been noted, it is clear that the unions are trying to distance themselves from party politics. Reshuffles at the top of the hierarchy may indicate internal changes to come.

• 15 Feb 2011
  Czech Republic: Czech Republic: EIRO CAR on “The effect of the Information and Consultation Directive on Industrial Relations in the EU Member States five years after its transposition“

  In the Czech Republic the employees’ rights to information and consultation are embedded in the Labour Code. Most frequently trade unions act as I&C bodies. Provisions on information and consultation and governance of these processes beyond the scope of the Labour Code appear in a growing number of collective agreements. Although employee representatives are often provided with information as prescribed by the Labour Code, their influence on the ultimate decision by the management is not always a very strong one.

• 15 Feb 2011
  Austria: Austria: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The instalment of a national sectoral collective agreement for the whole health care and social care sector can be considered a milestone for the sector, entailing standardised pay, the improvement of working conditions and improved working time regulations for a large group of employees. However, many problems in the sector have not been solved yet. There is a noticeable shortage of (qualified) labour and substantial lack of funding. The problem of undeclared work in the care sector has been tackled with an ordinance on the legislation of foreign care workers and a law on home care; however, organised labour has great objections against it as it stipulates excessively long working hours.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Slovakia: Slovakia: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Slovak healthcare underwent major reforms during the period 1998-2006, including deregulation and decentralization of healthcare providers. Reforms produced discrepancies in pay and working conditions across university hospitals, smaller public hospitals, public care homes and private healthcare providers, which remains the main challenge in the sector together with migration and labour shortages. Social partners address the above challenges in multi-employer and single-employer bargaining. Despite relevant collectively agreed wage increases in the past five years, trade unions and smaller healthcare providers continue in their efforts to decrease the pay gap and labour shortages of nurses and care personnel.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Italy: Italy: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Two main challenges can be identified in the health care sector: providing universal, good quality services in hospital and community care and expanding long-term care services, within the context of cost-containment policies. Collective bargaining provided a partial response to these challenges respectively allowing greater “managerialisation” and promoting better working conditions and professionalization in the residential and home care sector, in order to make it more attractive for workers. However, innovations were limited and hindered, in the first case, by the diffidence of unions and politicians and, in the second case, by the weakness of the third sector unions.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Norway: Norway: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The Norwegian health care sector is mainly part of the public sector, and there has only been moderate pressure for privatisation and competitive tendering. The union density rate is high in most parts of the sector, and the density rate is also high on the employer side. The large majority of employees and companies are covered by collective agreements, including private care providers. The hospital sector was reorganised though a major reform in 2002, whereas the focus lately has been on improving the coordination between hospitals and the primary level health care provision such as care in the home and in nursing homes.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Germany: Germany: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Reforms of the health care and of the social care sector have resulted in a decline of public hospitals, whereas the number of private providers has been increasing. The public health sector is covered by multi-employer agreements, but in the private sector even single-employer agreements are difficult to reach. By summer 2010, a minimum wage will cover the growing number of assistant care workers in the private sector.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Cyprus: Cyprus: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Despite its rather rapid development during the last five years, the private part of the health care sector is characterised by low union density and low coverage. Apart from representation problems, the private sector is highly segregated, dominated almost exclusively by female employment, while due to serious shortages of domestic labour, mainly among first-level nurses, there is high cross-border mobility. As regards the further development of the private segment of the sector, completion of the dialogue on the creation of a General Health System is very important, while the issue of staffing remains a main priority for both the private and the public parts of the sector.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Belgium: Belgium: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  This national contribution summarises recent industrial relations trends in the Belgian health care sector. In complementarity with a continued state investment in the sector, social partners have worked in a tri-partite way to improve working conditions, create more jobs and enhance the attractiveness of the sector for young working people. The five years agreement of 2000 and 2005 for the whole social profit sector form the backbone of these efforts.

• 14 Feb 2011
  EU Countries: Employment and industrial relations in the health care sector

  This report presents the findings of a study that assessed the contributions of employers, trade unions and professional organisations in achieving the recruitment and retention of staff (other than doctors) in the health care sector as it battles to overcome the challenges of an ageing population, budgetary constraints and skills shortages. The study covers hospital-based, residential and home care provided in the public and private sectors in the EU27 countries (apart from Latvia and Finland) plus Norway. The report provides a summary of employment, expenditure and policy trends in the sector and identifies key social partner organisations. It examines collective bargaining and social dialogue and their contribution to addressing the challenges the sector faces, particularly in increasing its attractiveness as an employer for nurses and care workers by helping to improve their pay, working conditions and terms of employment.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Sweden: Sweden: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  A key challenge for the Swedish health care sector will be how to handle the liberalisation of the primary health care services, while still preserving the tax-funded welfare system. There are still substantial obstacles in terms of poorly diversified care and long waiting lines. Another key aspect is the issue of equality for both workers and patients. The issue of work related equality and many other work-related issues, have already been addressed through both agreements such as the FAS05 partnership agreement and through specific measures such as the so called “equality pools”.

• 14 Feb 2011
  United Kingdom: UK: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Industrial relations in the UK health care sector are characterized by high levels of social dialogue and joint regulation, particularly in the public part of the sector. Numerous trade unions exist and, in the public part of the sector, a range of collective agreements and social dialogue mechanisms are used at the sectoral and trust-level to regulate industrial relations within the sector. In the private part of the sector, trade union density and collective bargaining coverage is lower and firm-level regulation is the norm.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Romania: Romania: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Over the past decade, the Romanian health care system has been the object of many initiatives, attempts, and successive reform schemes. In spite of a rise of public spending for health the budget allocations are still much below the average for EU 27. The collective agreement negotiated in the health sector is a sectoral multi-employer agreement. This collective agreement is the basis on which, in each medical establishment, employer and employees negotiate their agreement at company level. Confronted by the deficit of personnel in the health sector, the social partners, both the unions and the employers, have succeeded in obtaining salary raises in recent years, and the provision, by law, of the fidelity bonus.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Estonia: Estonia: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The health care sector is one of the most active sectors in Estonia in terms of industrial relations. There are three active trade unions in the sector and it is one of only two sectors concluding sectoral minimum wage agreements extended to all employees in the sector. Currently the sectoral agreement is valid until the end of 2010. Still, the health care sector has been significantly influenced by the economic downturn. Hospitals have been forced to implement redundancies, cut salaries and reduce other benefits.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Hungary: Hungary: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector (in particular the situation of nurses and care workers)

  In Hungary the health care system has been “under construction” for the last 15-20 years. Mainly the nurses and the care workers are suffering from this transformation process. Many of them have lost work their posts, and the average wage has been stagnating at the prevailing subsistence level. The prestige of the job is very low within the sector, and first contacts with clients, normally made by nurses and care workers significantly affect the public view on the entire sector. Looking at governmental and other public positions one is inclined to argue that care work seems to be specifically low valued. Recent policies do not prioritize nor aim to regulate the employment and working conditions of nurses, midwifes, skilled and unskilled care workers.Therefore our study can describe only general framework actions, bargaining and social-dialogue of the entire health care sector.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Bulgaria: Bulgaria: Industrial Relation in the Health Care Sector

  The main challenge for social dialogue in the health sector over the past five years was the low wages of health professionals. This was due to the fact that an unsatisfactory rate of GDP is allocated to health (about 4 %), and the imperfections of the model of health reform that began in 2000. Through sectoral collective agreements (2006 and 2008) salaries of employees in the sector were increased; the increase for nurses was around 20%. After union protests in 2007 salaries for social workers were increased by 30%.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Czech Republic: Czech Republic: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Over the past twenty years the Czech health care system underwent radical changes which were not always positively accepted by the public, trade unions as well as by professional organizations (privatisation of health care facilities, a fee paid for a visit to the doctor etc.). However, financing of the entire system which is based, more or less, on general health insurance only, remains a substantial problem. This system at preserving the existing quality of healthcare is not sustainable in the long run, but any attempt to reform the system has met with unwillingness and up to now any minister of health has not got enough political support to push the health care reform through. Therefore, the health care system in the CR can be characterized by constant efforts to make changes which encounter resistance and which result in “cosmetic” modifications, not in important changes to the system. It is also linked with rewarding and working conditions of medical personnel, both being limited by financial restraints of funds from general health insurance and being a subject of frequent protests.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Netherlands: The Netherlands: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The most important development in the health care sector in the Netherlands over the past five years had been the introduction and development of market regulation. Unions are critical of this development and point at contraproductive effects of specialisation and large scale companies. Employers favour entrepeneurship and competition.They point at the advantages of clustering of expertise that would lead to higher revenues. However, also employers see labour market shortages threatening the sector in the near future as a result of a growing demand for care and a shrinking labour population. Therefore they strive at labour conditions that are in conformity with the market. They also emphasize that a market conform salary will not be enough to deal with the labour shortages to come. Technical and social innovation will be necessary too. Continuous vocational training is seen as a key component in these policies. However, competition at local level empedes solid education policies, for no company wants to educate its personnel for their neighbours. In collective agreements, there are also measures taken directed at a better work-life balance, such as flexible working times and possibilities to save time for periods of leave.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Luxembourg: Luxembourg: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector.

  Over the last 5 years, training and valuation of career paths in the health care sector were some of the significant challenges that social partners had to cope with. The environmental competitiveness and growing contest of certain professions urged them to reflect on the way to enhance the frame of the health care system while improving working conditions in a sector that is expected to constantly tend to the highest quality level. Consequently, social dialogue and collective bargaining gave birth to different instruments aimed at implementing a sustainable framework and, in particular, at increasing workers’ proficiency and career opportunities.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Slovenia: Slovenia: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Slovenia's healthcare network is regulated by the Ministry of Health (Ministrstvo za zdravje, MZ) which is responsible for healthcare institutions, hospitals and clinics operated at the national level. The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs (Ministrstvo za delo, druzino in socialne zadeve, MDDSZ) is responsible for nursing homes for elderly people which offer professional protection. Health, social security, pension and disability insurance allow various services and benefits which are provided within the scope of the existing social protection systems. As almost all health and care institutions are to wide extent financed with public funds the industrial relations are regulated centrally. The biggest challenge is to ensure sustainability of financing due to ageing of the population.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Poland: Poland: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Low wages, the migration of doctors and nurses abroad and the increase of workload in hospitals and residential care centres constituted the key challenges of the health sector in Poland in the years 2005-2010. The main achievement of social partners was the negotiation of the law on transferring additional financial resources from the National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia, NFZ) to medical service providers to increase wages. However, the actual wage increase was largely the result of a wave of strikes in the sector. The main obstacles to collective bargaining included limited representativeness of social partners and unstable financing from NFZ which made it difficult to conclude any kind of collective agreements.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Spain: Spain: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The health care sector is characterised by a high level of temporary workers and turnover, low salaries and a proportion of female workers that greatly exceeds the presence of women in other sectors. The enactment of Law 39/2006, on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent Persons, has introduced positive elements that favour working conditions and has specifically undertaken to foster quality employment. In the context of collective bargaining, the pre-eminence of sectoral agreements at a national level has established a general regulation framework for health care workers.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Lithuania: Lithuania: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  In Lithuania, health care services are mainly provided by budgetary institutions which funding depends on the decisions made by the State. Similarly, two trade unions and one employer organisation functioning in the sector mainly represent public-sector employees and employers . The primary focus of these organisations is to negotiate with the government of the country, namely, with the Ministry of Health, in pursuit of the main objective – improvement of working conditions and wage increase in particular.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Ireland: Ireland: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Reform of the healthcare sector in terms of greater flexibility and efficiency has been a key challenge facing the social partners in recent years. The national level social partnership agreements concluded over the past 5 years have committed the parties to reform of the sector. In recent years a decrease in funding levels for the Health Service Executive (HSE) which provides public healthcare as well as a public service wide moratorium on recruitment and promotion has put pressure on the sector. In the ‘Public Service Agreement 2010 – 2014’ agreed in March 2010 commits unions and public health employers to a number of specific reforms to address these challenges.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Greece: Greece: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The ageing of the population, the mass immigration in search of employment in the broader health-welfare sector and the downgrading of the public health sector are developments which call for a reform of labour relations and the upgrade of social dialogue on the sector's qualitative evolution and organization, which is of paramount importance. In Greece, in an ever expanding labour market and business sector, this process of reform is obstructed, on the one hand, by the lack of a culture of social dialogue in general, and, on the other hand, by the tradition of 'self-regulation', which affects most aspects of the country's financial and social life.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Portugal: Portugal: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector (in particular the situation of nurses and care workers)

  Health care is dominated by the National Health Service (SNS), but there is growing private investment in the sector. In the trade union camp in the sector the nurses are the best organized group under the leadership of SEP. Other care workers are represented by several unions with very broad domains. There are numerous conflicts in industrial relations in the public health service, but negotiations produce some important positive results. The situation in private health care (non-profit and profit) is similar. There is no social Concertation on / in the sector.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Malta: Malta: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  Malta’s health care sector faces challenges arising from the escalating demands of an ageing population, the increase of chronic diseases, the encouragement of the preventive approach, long waiting lists, the rising costs of emerging treatment modalities, and insufficient staff. Apart from the issue of funding, the bureaucratic systems that typify the public services and the occasional lack of cooperation among the different levels of the health-care staff are crucial obstacles in the progress of this field. Over the past five years, through collective bargaining and social dialogue, the government and the social partners showed their commitment to the search for new pathways that provide effective human resources development, complimented with the application of new and cost-effective technologies and initiatives, at times based on public-private partnerships.

• 14 Feb 2011
  France: France: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The French health care system is confronted with considerable shortages of care workers. These shortages are assumed to be aggravated soon due to a large amount of nurses who will retire in the next decade. The challenges are seriously considered by social partners and policy-makers. Several recent agreements aiming at addressing these challenges have been reached in the last five years. Because these agreements are too recent, there is no assessment of their impact yet. It is difficult to evaluate whether these efforts will be sufficient. Unions tend to consider that further efforts are necessary.

• 14 Feb 2011
  Denmark: Denmark: Industrial Relations in the Health Care Sector

  The employees and employees’ organisations in the health care sector took a step forward in raising awareness of their problems regarding pay and working conditions when they engaged in two strikes in 2007 and 2008. The former was spontaneous and in breach with the peace obligation of the collective agreements. The other was legal and took place in connection with the renewal of the collective agreement in 2010. An important outcome of the negotiations in 2010 was the formation of a Wage Commission whose mandate it was to analyse wage differences in the public sector. Outsourcing in the sector is till very limited but may increase due to a tight economy in the municipalities and regions.

• 11 Feb 2011
  France: Initial impact of new self-contractor’s scheme

  Two assessments of the implementation of the self-contractor scheme have now been published, providing an overview of this important addition to French employment policy introduced in July 2008. The new status applies to those individuals who do not wish to establish a company in order to undertake economic activities, but prefer to be able to set up and dissolve their business relatively easily. The option is available to employees, jobseekers or those who have retired.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Lithuania: Employers and government promote incentives to work

  The financial crisis has led to increased unemployment, growing numbers of illegal workers and a higher proportion of workers on the minimum wage in Lithuania. However, there is concern that the current system of social benefits does not encourage people to join the labour market. In November 2010, the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists broadly backed the recommendations made by a government working group set up by the Prime Minister to promote incentives to work.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Italy: Susanna Camusso appointed new Cgil general secretary

  Italy’s largest trade union, the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Cgil), has elected Susanna Camusso as General Secretary of the organisation – the first time a woman has held this post in any of the country’s three biggest trade union confederations. Elected with a resounding majority of 125 votes out of 158, Ms Camusso, who has a lot of experience in the trade union movement, has expressed her intention to promote more unity among Italy’s trade unions.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Denmark: Significant decline in lost working days in 2009

  Strikes and lockouts in 2009 resulted in the lowest number of working days lost in Denmark since the current calculation method was introduced by Statistics Denmark in 1996. The total number of working days lost in the public and private sectors combined was 15,000 compared with 1.9 million in the so-called ‘conflict’ year of 2008. However, the unusually high number of days lost in 2008 meant that Denmark topped the European ranking for industrial disputes for 2005–2009.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Italy: New regulations for public and private employment

  After two years of parliamentary discussions, a new law regarding public and private employment was approved by the Italian government on 4 November 2010. The law contains 50 articles concerning different aspects of employment such as the settling of labour disputes, apprenticeships for young people, undeclared work and employment in the public sector. Social partners were in general agreement with modifications made by parliament to some clauses in the law.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Belgium: Brink’s case highlights employment status issue

  In October 2010, the loss-making Belgian branch of money transport company Brink’s presented a drastic cost-cutting plan that included a change of employment status for white-collar workers. In response, trade unions called a strike, and Brink’s management replied by declaring bankruptcy – putting about 450 jobs at risk. The case reopened the debate on the harmonisation of employment status of blue-collar and white-collar workers, a crucial topic in Belgian industrial relations.

• 11 Feb 2011
  France: Reform of state pension system despite strong opposition

  The French government’s reform of the state pension system is now law and the age at which workers will be entitled to their state pension has increased, but with exceptions for specific or disadvantaged groups of people. Those who began working at an early age are still entitled to retire early. With these and other changes, the government hopes to rebalance the public finances by 2018. The government is also keen to close the gap between public and private sector pensions.

• 11 Feb 2011
  France: New law on unions for workers in micro companies

  The French government passed a law in 2008 changing the way representativeness of trade unions was measured. However, workers employed by very small companies were unable to participate in elections for staff representatives, which determine the status of the unions. In 2010, the government began the process of reforming representativeness within these small companies with the law of 15 October 2010, which will enable these workers to participate in elections for union representation.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Czech Republic: Public servants strike against government budget cuts

  An all-day strike of public sector employees on 8 December 2010, organised by the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS) in protest at government budget cuts, involved some 148,000 strikers and was supported by many more people. Protest meetings were also held in Prague and other Czech regions. There was widespread support from other trade unions (national and international) and opposition politicians, but the strike did not produce any tangible results.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Finland: Doubts over Finland’s state productivity programme

  Finland’s audit office recently announced that a programme to improve public sector productivity had failed. The programme’s basic aim was to cut down on the replacement of retiring employees, gradually reducing the number of public sector workers. In view of the audit office finding, the parliamentary audit committee and trade unions have called for the programme to be scrapped. But the Finance Ministry has defended it, saying it can only be evaluated in the long term.

• 11 Feb 2011
  Ireland: Bank of Scotland Ireland agreement on staff transfer

  Bank of Scotland Ireland – part of Lloyds Banking Group, in which the British Treasury holds a 77% stake – has reached agreement with the Unite trade union over the transfer of 800 workers to independent service company Certus, as part of the Bank’s wind down. They will receive a basic wage rise worth 2.5%, a ‘retention’ bonus worth up to 50% of salary, enhanced severance terms and a commitment to no compulsory redundancies until 2013. Pension arrangements have also been revised.

• 11 Feb 2011
  EU Level: Commission consults again on Working Time Directive review

  In December 2010, the European Commission launched the second stage of consultations with EU-level social partners on possible amendments to the Working Time Directive, suggesting either a ‘focused’ review, limited to the issues of on-call time and compensatory rest, or a wider-ranging ‘comprehensive’ review. Consultations began last March, initiated in an attempt to revise the directive so it reflects changes in the organisation of working time over the past 20 years.