"Good news for our retained firefighters" says MP

Mike Penning MP has welcomed news that EU talks aimed at scrapping Britain's opt-out of the working time directive have collapsed.

Hemel Hempstead MP, Mike Penning has welcomed news that the European Parliament’s attempt to scrap Britain’s opt-out of the EU working time directive has failed. Talks were abandoned last night so the existing opt-out remains in place. If the UK’s opt-out was scrapped, it would have particularly adversely affected our retained firefighters.

Mike Penning said:

“I am glad that we have got the right result - even if it is only because no agreement could be reached, rather than EU bureaucrats seeing common sense. People should be able to choose the hours they work.

“This is particularly good news for our retained firefighters who play an important role providing fire cover – especially at Kings Langley and Markyate which have retained fire stations. If passed, this legislation would have severely compromised their role and fire cover provision in many parts of the UK.

“The situation is straightforward – if the retained firefighters didn’t want to work these hours, they wouldn’t. They choose to do it to serve their communities. They don’t need an EU directive to protect them!”

He continued:

“It is utter nonsense to start meddling with a system that has been in place a long time and works very well purely because of EU ideologies.”

Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP, the Conservative's employment spokesman in the European Parliament, said:

"The result of the breakdown of negotiations is that the opt-out remains secure – until the next attempt to undermine it. The current commission proposal for review automatically lapses, and it will be up to the commission to come up with a new proposal."