madam president extending the working time directive to cover self-employed people is nonsensical
it is window-dressed to protect employees rights and therefore has no place in a self-employed framework
it is also unenforceable without infringing people's liberties by carrying out checks in their homes
this is not a matter of road safety
regulation ec no five hundred and sixty-one two thousand and six already covers driving time and is applicable to large companies small businesses and the self-employed
you still need an operator's licence to work if you are self-employed and would therefore be the registered holder of that licence
anything which may jeopardise the licence would therefore jeopardise the licence holder's whole livelihood
with this in mind it is safe to assume that there is just cause for self-employed drivers to be even more fastidious than big firms
everything directly related to the service would be considered part of working time for example paperwork maintenance and general administration
in large firms people are employed to do this therefore administration time has no impact on driving time
self-employed doing their own administration would find under the directive's conditions little time left to do the driving itself
as an aside i believe the commission also proposed a relaxation of restrictions over night work by introducing a two-hour qualifying period before night-time restrictions apply
i rarely agree with the commission but this would also be a welcome amendment
i fully support the rapporteur ms bauer
