CELEX: 51981PC0775
Language: en
Date: 1981-12-22
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON VOLUNTARY PART-TIME WORK

12.3.82                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 62/7
                                                              II
                                                       (Preparatory Acts)
                                                 COMMISSION
                                 Proposal for a Council Directive on voluntary part-time work
                                (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 4 January 1982)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                        Whereas this measure is designed to complement in
COMMUNITIES,                                                       the field of part-time work existing legislation on the
                                                                   realization of equal treatment for men and women;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community, and in particular                     Whereas there are still significant differences between
Article 100 thereof,                                               the Member States concerning the implementation of
                                                                   the principle of non-discrimination between part-time
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 and full-time workers, and these differences can
                                                                   distort competition between undertakings and affect
                                                                   the functioning of the common market;
Having regard to the opinion of the European
Parliament,                                                        Whereas it is therefore necessary to remedy this
                                                                   situation by approximating the laws of the Member
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                   States while maintaining the improvement referred to
Social Committee,                                                  in Article 117 of the Treaty.
Whereas the Council, in its resolution adopted on                  HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
 18 December 1979 on the adaptation of working
time O , stated in relation to part-time working that it                                    Article 1
 'must be voluntary, open to both men and women
 and must not be imposed on persons who wish to                    This Directive covers part-time work.
work full time';                                                   For the purpose of this Directive, the following
                                                                   definitions shall apply:
 Whereas the Parliament, in its resolution adopted on
  17 September 1981 on employment and the adap-                    — normal hours of work: the normal working hours
 tation of working time (2), stated in relation to part-               for any particular category of worker established
 time working that 'this form of work must be the                      by legislation, by collective agreement or by
 result of a voluntary choice' and 'steps must be taken                agreement concluded at the level of the individual
                                                                       establishment or undertaking;
 to prevent discrimination';
                                                                   — full-time work: work performed on a regular basis
 Whereas although part-time work has become a                          for the normal hours of work;
 feature of the labour market, measures have yet to be
                                                                   — part-time work: work performed on a regular basis
 taken to guarantee pan-time workers the same rights
                                                                       in respect of which an employer and a worker
 as full-time employees while taking into account the
                                                                       agree to shorter working hours than the normal
 special features of part-time work;
                                                                       hours of work;
                                                                   — full-time (part-time) worker: a worker who agrees
(') O J N o C 2 , 4. 1. 1980, p. 1.                                    with his or her employer to carry out full-time
(') OJNoC260, 12. 10. 1981.                                             (part-time) work.
 ---pagebreak--- C^OCD^                                                 Cofficial Journal of the European Communities                                  n^^
                                       A ^ c ^    ^                              situationcorrespondm^totheir skills or occupational
                                                                                 experience
Rartnme workers shall not he discriminated against
as compared with fullnme workers in respect of
working conditions, rules ^overnm^ dismissal,
entitlement to participate actively or passively in                              Rarttime workers shall be taken into account, at least
bodies representing employees and access to                                      in proportion to their working hours, in the total
vocational training, promotion, social facilities and                            count of employees m an establishment or under
medical care This is hereinafter referred to as the                              taking, particularly for the purposes of determining
^principle of nondiscriminations                                                 the social obligations which a r e h n k e d t o the number
                                                                                 of workers employed
                                       A ^ o ^ ^                                                                A ^ c ^ ^
1          Rarttime workers shall not he excluded from                           Recourse to parttime work shall come within the
statutory or occupational social security schemes                                scope of the procedures for the information and
Their contributions to and benefits from such                                    consultation of workers^ representatives as are in
schemes shallbemade on thesamebasis as for full                                  force for fulltimeworkersmthe member states
time workers,taking account of thehours worked bv
the part-time workers andBor the remuneration
received
^          member states shall be exempt from applying                           1        Any laws, regulations and administrative
the provisions of paragraph 1 to parttime workers                                provisions in breach of the preceding Articles shall be
whose working hours andBor remuneration are belo^                                abolished
the threshold of eligibility for statutory or occuD
pational social security schemes                                                 ^        Any provisions in breach of the preceding
                                                                                 Articles which are included in collective agreements
                                                                                 or individual contracts of employment shall be, or
                                        Ar^cA^ ^                                 may be declared, null and void
 1         The remuneration,holiday pay,redundancypav
and retirement benefits of parttime workers shall,                                                              A ^ c ^ A^
taking account of the hours of work, be in proportion
to those of fulPtime workers dom^ an equivalent ^ob                              f        member states shall implement the laws, re^u
                                                                                 lations and administrative provisions necessary to
^          Rara^raph 1 shall be without prejudice to the                         comply with this Directive not later than I January
ability of the member states to allow more favourable                             l A ^ and shall notdy them to the Commission
t r e a t m e n t t o b e ^ i v e n t o p a r t t i m e w o r k e r s b y means  without delay
of laws, regulations and administrative provisions,
collective agreements or other agreements                                        ^        member states shall communicate to the
                                                                                 Commission the te^ts of the laws, regulations and
                                                                                  administrative provisions which they a d o p t m t h e field
                                                                                 cohered bv this Directive
The nature of the parttime work,the hours of work
 and the arrangements for the distribution of these
 hours shall be specified in a written agreement
 between the employer and the worker                                              ^ i t h m t w o years of the e^piryof the period referred
                                                                                  t o r n Article lO, member states shall forward to the
                                                                                  Commission all necessarvinformation to enable i t t o
                                        A ^ A      ^                              d r a w u p a r e p o r t o n the apphcationof this Directive
                                                                                  for submission to the Council
 Rarttime workers wishing to occupy or return to a
 f u l l t i m e ^ o b o r f u l l t i m e workers wishing to occupy
 or return t o a p a r t t i m e ^ o b in the same establishment
 or undertaking shall have priority over candidates
 outside t h e u n d e r t a k m ^ w h e r e a v a c a n c y occurs m a           This Directive is addressed to the ^viembe^ states