The working week should be limited to 48 hours in order to protect workers, say leaders of the Presbyterian Church of Wales in a letter to the Prime Minister. 

The Church has urged the government to approve adoption of the European Working Time Directive (WTD).  The United Kindgom’s present opt-out from the Directive is currently under intense negotiation after MEPs voted to scrap the opt-out in December.  This would mean that workers could not work more than 48 hours a week on average and would share the protection granted to many other workers in Europe.  But the UK government and the European Council of Ministers, on which the UK government is represented, oppose this position.

Revd Ifan Roberts, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, said: “The balance between work, family and social life is a matter of concern because long hours at work can be detrimental to health.  The proposed change would also reduce the pressure on families.  According to the TUC, 460,000 people in the UK are working more than 60 hours a week: a workload that is dangerous to them and which adds up to more than seven eight-hour days a week.”

Mervyn Phillips, Chair of the Church and Society Department, added that the Church supports the calls for Sunday to be recognised in the Directive as the preferred day of rest: “The Conference of European Churches, of which the Presbyterian Church of Wales is a member, has taken the lead in calling for the better balance between work and rest and, as part of this, asked for Sunday to be named as a preferred day of rest.

"This would not mean shut-down on Sundays but would give recognition to Sundays as special. Within the churches Sunday is recognised as a day for worship, rest and recreation, but it is also the case that many who do not come to church see the cultural and social importance of having Sundays as a named preferred day off work. While this proposal was not accepted by the European Parliament, it is a matter that the British Government has been asked to look at as part of a shift to a more considerate approach to working conditions.”