MEPs tell self-employed lorry drivers to take a rest

BRUSSELS - MEPs have voted to reject a European Commission proposal that would have exempted self-employed lorry drivers from EU working-time rules.

The result means independent truckers will be subject to the same 48 hours per-week average driving limit as staff drivers and also required to take rest breaks.

The close decision on Wednesday (16 June) saw deputies reject the proposal by 67 votes, with the issue of road safety versus job freedom splitting the house.

Socialist MEPs had previously warned the indefinite exemption would threaten road safety by allowing exhausted drivers to spend up to 86 hours a week on the road.

"Lives would have been at risk if it had gone ahead," UK MEP Stephen Hughes said after the vote. "I was astonished by the dogmatic stance of the commission and its allies in trying to push this exemption through."

There were also concerns that the laxer rules could result in transport operators facing unfair competition from companies exploiting "false" self-employed drivers.

But others said parliament had thrown common sense out the window by forcing self-employed drivers to comply with the 2002 working time directive on the road transport industry.

Self-employed drivers had been exempted from the directive since 2009, an exemption that the commission proposal sought to continue.

"Self-employed drivers adhere to strict rules on driving hours already. In the current climate, they do not need to be tied up with unnecessary red tape," said Czech Milan Cabrnoch, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

"We have fought a long, hard campaign to defend the interests of self-employed drivers. Unfortunately socialist dogma has prevailed."

The commission indicated after the vote that it would consider withdrawing the proposal altogether, although a number of industry bodies pleaded for them not to do so.

The European craft and small business employers' organisation (UEAPME) said the decision would limit the freedom of small entrepreneurs to organise their work according to business needs.

"Despite our repeated warnings, MEPs ... went ahead with a stubborn, short-sighted attempt to apply one-size-fits-all rules to a very diverse set of drivers," said the group's secretary general, Andrea Benassi.