The Trades Union Congress says Britain's policy of allowing companies to opt-out of the European Union Working Time Directive, meaning people towork over the 48-hour a week limit on a "voluntary" basis, meant the protection it offered could be circumvented.
They have not forgotten that, a few years later, the European Commission circumvented their opt-out by calling a directiveto limit the hours employees may work a health-and-safety measure, not a social one.
And a Tory promise to restore national control over social and employment legislation has been replaced by a more nuanced commitment to "examine the balance of the EU's existing competences" and, in particular, to"work to limit" the application of the working time directive.