European Union Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

European Union Law - Essay Example The UK, having adopted the Directive, has remained silent on the issue of minimum wage while all other stipulations remain the same. Tom is an employee working as a nurse under a local organization by the name of Hoxon Council. Under his employment conditions, he is working an average of 50 hours per week after opting out of the 48 hours per week condition. His hourly wage is 6 pounds and he is entitled to 5 weeks annual paid leave. The overtime has led to deterioration in the health of Tom and even after filing a complaint with his superiors, he did not receive a positive response. This has led to certain implications for Tom which will be discussed within this paper. This paper would attempt to provide a solution for Tom with reference to the existing laws. Could Tom invoke the Directive against his employer? The Directive allows employees to file an appeal against the employer if the conditions of the Directive have not been met. This is done to aid the employees working within th e UK and to prevent too much power in the hands of the organizations (Hartley, 2007). Tom cannot invoke the Directive against the employer for the overtime that he is working. This is because he has willingly opted out of the 48 hour weekly limit by signing a contract with the organization. Since the Directive allows employees to willingly sign out of the agreement, it will not consider the issue of Tom working for 50 hours a week. But in the case of the minimum hourly wage, Tom can invoke the Directive against the employer. The European Union Law has more power over the national law in the case that lesser rights are provided to individuals. The same case is apparent in this issue. The Employee Rights Act as adopted by UK is silent on the issue of minimum wage. However, the Directive stipulates that the minimum hourly wage should not be less than 8 pounds. Tom is only being paid 6 pounds by his employer which is less than the minimum hourly wage. Thus Tom has the advantage of invok ing the Directive against the employee on the issue of the minimum hourly wage. Also in terms of the minimum annual paid leave, Tom can invoke the Directive against his employer. This is because right now he is getting 5 weeks annual paid leave according to the limit set by the Act but the Directive allows for 6 weeks annual paid leave. Here again the Directive has the power to forgo the Act and thus grant Tom 6 weeks annual paid leave. Since Tom is working overtime in order to make ends meet, the increase in hourly wage would positively impact his working conditions. He would not as a result suffer from the health conditions that he is suffering at this point of time. Would it be advisable for Tom to rely on the indirect effect of the Directive? The indirect effect of the Directive refers to the principle that national laws are under reinterpretation if they are inconsistent with the laws of the European Union. The indirect effect is thus a powerful tool that can be applied in orde r to bring about a change in the national laws to take into account the European Union Law. According to the ECJ ‘national courts are therefore under an obligation to interpret national legislation in accordance with the aims and purposes of the Directive’ (Owen, 2000). In this case, it would be advisable for Tom to rely on the indirect effect of the Directive. This is so because the indirect effect would allow him to file a valid case whereby the Employee Rights