Our Petition

Summary of Aim

Keep the Opt Out - VICTORY

Full Text of Petition

Update: VICTORY

Liz Lynne MEP and the Liberal Democrats, have been leading the campaign in the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the European Parliament to keep the right for key retained fire-fighters all across UK to opt out of the Working Time Directive - which threatens to limit their total weekly working time to 48 hours, including time spent on call.

The plan to scrap the UK opt-out, backed by many Labour MEPs, failed to pass after talks between the European Parliament and representatives of EU member states collapsed at the end of April.

Liz Lynne, who is vice President of the European Parliament's Employment Social Affairs Committee, worked closely with the Retained Fire-fighters Union, who feared that if the opt-out battle was lost thousands of hours of emergency cover would be removed. Liz Lynne is the shadow rapporteur for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe and the only UK lead for any party in the European Parliament, negotiating with government ministers from EU Member States