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Ref The Morning Advertiser, ...


Ref The Morning Advertiser, http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=23797
The directive was legislated in 1993 and brought into effect in the UK in Oct 1998. Like all European Union directives, this is an instrument which requires member states to enact its provisions in national legislation. ‘Although the directive applies to all member states, in the United Kingdom it is possible to "opt out" of the 48 hour working week in order to work longer hours. In contrast, France has passed more strict legislation, limiting the maximum working week to 35 hours'. Ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Time_Directive
The Working Time Directive is a piece of EU legislation designed to prevent damage to the health of workers through working excessive hours and ensuring they have sufficient breaks during the working day and appropriate days off. Self employed people and volunteers are exempt from the legislation.
This paper will look into the Working Time Directive as it affects both small business owners and employees.

Research Objectives
The objectives of the paper are to document the impact of the European Union Working Time Directive, and any significant changes and updates, and assess both the positive and negative impact on employers and employees in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's). The directive has been in force in the UK since October, 1998 and a number of proposals have been tabled to amend it in the subsequent period.
Research Methodology
Background on SME's will be briefly looked at to identify the scope of the issues within the Small to Medium Enterprises in the UK and the magnitude of their collective effect on the UK economy. The overhead in ensuring a company is in compliance with the Working Time Directive will be investigated and the effect on SME's in particular, in the UK. In addition, the effects of the changes on employees in this sector to be analyzed, views of the unions will also be commented on, if appropriate as inputs.
The application of the opt-out by British companies in general will be analyzed, this is a vital element of the directive for SMEs and widely used by business in the United Kingdom.
As the directive was enacted 9 years ago, updates to the directive and the responses of UK SMEs and other companies will be studied.
Literature Review & Findings
Background on UK SME's
Soon after the enactment of the directive, Johan Fairhurst, a senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield wrote the paper, The Working Time Directive: A Spanish Inquisition, http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/1999/issue3/fairhurst3.html#Heading23
He defined an SME as ‘an employer with fewer than 250 workers.


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