No ‘health and safety logic’ to 48-hour week opt-out

The decision to retain the UK’s opt-out of the 48-hour working week is in direct opposition to health and safety legislation.

That is according to GMB, a campaigning trade union, which has also suggested that distributing working hours more evenly could help to ease unemployment.

Kathleen Walker-Shaw, European officer at GMB, said that there was no logic to the decision and she expressed concern that by retaining the opt-out, the UK had "missed [an] opportunity to make things right".

Commenting on the decision, Ms Walker-Shaw said: "At the core of all this is a very dangerous principle, that we are encouraging people to opt out of health and safety legislation.

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"In our view, the health and safety logic and argument is not there and the economic argument is not there supporting an opt-out."

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, echoed Ms Walker-Shaw’s views when he stated that long hours were detrimental to employees’ health and productivity levels.