The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and industriAll Europe strongly oppose the European Commission’s proposals to exempt the defence sector from labour and environmental law, and from chemical legislation as part of the latest Omnibus legislative package. In particular, we oppose the attempt to reinterpret and potentially amend the Working Time Directive (WTD). This attempt to weaken cornerstones of EU social policy under the guise of “defence readiness” is unacceptable and must be withdrawn immediately.
The Working Time Directive is a vital achievement that protects workers’ health, safety, and work-life balance by guaranteeing minimum standards for working hours, rest periods, and paid leave. Legislation such as REACH, is crucial to protecting the health and safety of people, specific measures are needed to protect the health and safety of workers who deal with dangerous substances. There should be greater emphasis on finding alternative substances.
Any move to dilute these protections, especially without proper consultation and agreement by social partners, is a dangerous precedent that undermines both social dialogue and fundamental workers' rights.
This proposal is not only misguided it is completely unnecessary. The existing directive already includes force majeure provisions and derogations that allow flexibility in genuinely exceptional circumstances, and collective agreements also include provisions such as agreed overtime with pay. The current legal framework provides sufficient room to respond to emergencies without needing to rewrite the rules or expand exemptions under ambiguous justifications such as “defence readiness.”
The Commission’s suggestion that the Working Time Directive should be interpreted more flexibly for the defence sector, including industrial production and military personnel, opens the door to broad and vague derogations. Such a move risks normalising excessive working hours, deteriorating health and safety standards, and eroding long-standing labour protections under the false premise of geopolitical necessity.
Exempting defence from the EU’s clean transition agenda would be a step in the wrong direction and a missed opportunity, as the defence and clean agendas do not need to collide. For example, Bruegel has recently published an analysis highlighting seven points for a common EU defence and climate agenda.
Furthermore, encouraging the development of high-risk AI for military and defence purposes is very dangerous. The EU’s AI Act aims to protect people from harmful AI and there is a big threat of companies misusing the defence exemption.
Lastly, we are extremely concerned about the explicit call on Member States to use public money from the Cohesion Fund and the remaining Recovery and Resilience Fund for defence. The two funds were aimed at contributing to upward convergence in the EU, reducing the inequality between difference countries and regions. Recent results at the ballot boxes have shown that it’s fundamental to address this issue. Diverting funding aimed at the EU’s social, green and digital objectives towards defence will only jeopardise our internal strength that relies on economic security and social stability.
Enabling faster procurement of defence products is understandable in the current context, but we also have to ensure fair procurement. This is why there should be a return for the taxpayer in the form of public funds tied with social conditionalities that ensure quality jobs covered by collective agreements and training rights. Social conditionality also brings returns for companies in the form of availability of skilled workforce.
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“This is a blatant attempt to bypass social dialogue and undermine decades of progress on workers’ rights in Europe. The Working Time Directive was not designed to serve political agendas but to protect people. We call on the Commission to withdraw this reckless proposal immediately and engage in proper consultation with trade unions and other social partners.
“Let us be clear: security does not come by weakening employment rights. On the contrary, a secure and resilient workforce is the foundation of a secure and democratic Europe.”
IndustriAll Europe Deputy General Secretary Isabelle Barthès said:
“We are very concerned about the approach taken by the European Commission in the Defence Omnibus, which seems to give a free hand to defence companies on all standards aimed to protect people and the environment in the EU, in addition to the blank cheque on funding. We have often said that Europe can only be strong externally if we are strong internally, but the proposals in the Omnibus threaten Europe’s collective social protection.
We call upon all European legislators to take a more balanced approach and to refrain from sacrificing our European labour, social and environmental standards under the guise of boosting defence.”
The ETUC and industriAll Europe urge the European Parliament and Member States to reject any reinterpretation or amendment of the Working Time Directive that weakens its protections or extends exemptions beyond their intended scope.
We stand firm: no erosion of working time rights under the false flag of defence.
