The General Workers’ Union is in favour of the opt-out clause in the EU’s Working Time Directive, by which Maltese workers can retain the right to work more than 48 hours a week if they wished to, deputy secretary general Manwel Micallef said.

Speaking in Gozo on Wednesday evening, Mr Micallef denied reports in certain sections of the media which claimed that the union was in favour of the removal of the opt-out clause.

This would cap the number of hours which Maltese workers can work.

Mr Micallef said the union believes that the hours employees work should be discussed with the employers.

He said that, contrary to what is being reported, the union is against the removal of the opt-out clause because this would not give workers the possibility of choosing how much they wanted to work. However, he said, the GWU is also in favour of a specific protection which protects the workers from abuse – which means that workers cannot be obliged or forced to work all those hours.

“As a trade union we are representing workers. We want Maltese workers to have a say in how many hours they want to work, so we do not want this directive to be introduced. On the other hand, we also want to protect the workers from abusive employers. When we take a position, we take it because it is the best decision, in the best interest of the Maltese workers,” he said.

Mr Micallef continued that the union’s position at the Ecosoc meeting held earlier this week was that workers can work a maximum of 65 hours in one week. It is not true that the union wants to remove the right of Maltese workers to choose if they want to work more than 48 hours, he insisted.

He appealed to the Maltese representatives at the European Parliament to vote according to whether this favours Maltese workers. “This is a very important issue and we cannot waste time discussing, or rather arguing, how this or the other person voted,” he said.