The Government has expressed disappointment after the European Parliament voted to tighten health and safety rules to protect EU citizens from working excessively long hours.

MEPs voted by 378 to 262 to abolish a provision that allows countries to opt-out of the requirement to limit the maximum working week for most workers to 48 hours. Under the revised Working Time Directive approved yesterday, the time doctors and other workers spend on call would be considered working time, but inactive hours would be calculated differently from active hours.

The revision is more restrictive than one proposed last year by the European Commission which failed to win a qualified majority in the Council of Ministers, where governments meet.

A Government spokesman said yesterday's vote was unhelpful, adding that it would make agreement more difficult to secure in the Council of Ministers.

Maria Cronin, IBEC's director of European affairs and social policy, said MEPs had missed an opportunity to reduce the administrative burden on businesses.

"If the Directive was passed as the European Parliament proposes, it would cause significant problems for organisations in Ireland and would have a major impact on the way that we do business," she said. "The suggestion that time when an employee is 'on call', but not actually working, should be considered to be working time is not practical."

European trade unions welcomed the vote and Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa congratulated MEPs who joined him in voting for it.