Working Time Regulations 1998

Posted: Feb 11, 2016

The legal number of hours between shifts is determined by the Working Time Regulations 1998, they state that the minimum rest period in a 24-hour period should not be less than eleven consecutive hours. In brief, workers are entitled to at least 11 hours rest per day, at least one day off each week and a rest break during the shift if it is longer than six hours.

An employer cannot insist that a worker works more than 48 hours per week. Any more than 48 hours are voluntary and subject to an Opt Out agreement.

Note that for night workers, there is a maximum of 8 hours work in any 24hours on average and a right to free health assessments.

Mobile workers are subject to a variation of these rules under the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations.

These rules apply to mobile workers – drivers and crew of heavy goods vehicles or public service vehicles subject to EC Regulation 561/2006. The rules limit the amount of time that can be worked and there is no opt-out available.

They do not replace EC drivers’ hour’s rules.

Self employed drivers have been covered by these regulations since 1^st May 2012.

What are the limits?

An average of 48 hours work per week calculated over a specified reference period.

In any single week up to 60 hours can be worked so long as the 48 hour average limit is maintained.

Night work is limited to 10 hours per night, unless there is a collective agreement or a workforce agreement to work longer.

Statutory annual leave and any sick leave and/or maternity/paternity leave counts as working time.

Working between 6 and 9 hours per day requires breaks totalling 30 minutes.

If more than 9 hours is worked then breaks must total 45 minutes; Breaks must be of at least 15 minutes duration. Break requirements under the Regulations, are in addition to those under the EU drivers’ hours rules.

Where mainly driving work is undertaken it is possible that working time breaks may be satisfied by breaks from driving taken under the EU drivers’ hours rules. The EU drivers’ hours rules break requirements take precedence when driving.

What counts as work?

In general any activities carried out in connection with the transport operation count as work, for example driving, loading/unloading, walk round checks etc. count as work.

There are a number of periods of time that do not count as work, for example, travelling between home and your normal place of work, lunch or other breaks and periods of availability.

Periods of availabilityare periods of time during which the mobile worker is not required to remain at their workstation but is required to be available for work, the foreseeable duration of which are known about in advance for example:-

Delays at a distribution centre.

Time spent travelling in the vehicle (only if no work is carried out such as navigating).

Reporting for work then being informed that no duties are to be undertaken for a specified period.

Accompanying a vehicle being transported by boat or train.

PoA can be taken at the workstation; Providing the worker has a reasonable amount of freedom (e.g. they can read and relax) for a known duration, this could satisfy the requirements of PoA.

Situations when a period of time should not be recorded as a PoA:-

Delays due to congestion (i.e. stuck in a traffic jam), because the driver would be stopping and starting the vehicle.

Frequently moving up within a queue (e.g. waiting within a queue to load or unload) every other minute.

If you are unsure what activities count as work and whether a period of time qualified as

A POAplease seek further advice from VOSA.

Record keeping:

Your employer is required to keep a record of your working time.

Tachograph records may also be used as record working time records and it is always important that you select the correct mode to record activities accurately. In some circumstances, it may be necessary to keep other types of records in addition to the tachograph for example working in a warehouse etc.

If tachograph’s are not used as working time records then another type of accurate record must be kept by your employer.

You can visit http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/work_time_regs/wtr0.htm for full guidance on the WTR’s and the rules for averaging out the above time limits over a period of time.

Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005

4-(1) The working time, including overtime, of a mobile worker shall not exceed 60 hours in a week.

(2) In any reference period which is applicable to his case, a mobile worker’s working time shall not exceed an average of 48 hours for each week.

(3) The reference periods which apply in the case of a mobile worker shall be:

(a) where a collective agreement or a workforce agreement provides for the application

of this regulation in relation to successive periods of 17 weeks, each such period,

(b) in a case where –

(i) there is no such provision, and

(ii) the employer gives written notice to the mobile worker in writing that he intends

to apply this subparagraph,

any period of 17 weeks in the course of the worker’s employment, or

(b) in any other case, the period ending at midnight between Sunday 31^st July 2005 and

Monday 1^st August 2005 and thereafter, in each year, the successive periods beginning at midnight at the beginning of the Monday which falls on, or is the first Monday after, a date in column 1 below and ending at midnight at the beginning of the Monday which falls on, or is the first Monday after, the date on the same line in column 2 below.

Column 1 (beginning)	Column 2 (end)
1^st December	1^st April
1^st April	1^st August
1^st August	1 December

(4) The reference period may be extended in relation to particular mobile workers or groups of mobile workers for objective or technical reasons or reasons concerning the organisation of work, by a collective agreement or a workforce agreement, by the substitution for 17 weeks of a period not exceeding 26 weeks.

(5) A mobile worker’s average weekly working time during a reference period shall be determined according to the formula –

where –

A is the aggregate number of hours comprised in the mobile worker’s working time during the course of the reference period;

B is the number of excluded hours during the reference period; and

C is the number of weeks in the reference period

(6) “excluded hours” means hours comprised in

(a) any period of annual leave taken by the mobile worker in exercise of entitlement under regulation 13 of the Working Time regulations 1988(1);

(b) any period of sick leave taken by the mobile worker;

(7) For the purpose of paragraph (5), the number of hours in a whole day shall be eight and the number of hours in a whole week shall be forty-eight.

Periods of Availability

6 – (1) A period shall not be treated as a period of availability unless the mobile worker knows before the start of the relevant period about that period of availability and its reasonably foreseeable duration.

(2) The time spent by a mobile worker, who is working as part of a team, travelling in, but not driving, a moving vehicle as part of that team shall be a period of availability for that mobile worker.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4) a period of availability shall not include a period of rest or a break

(4) A period of availability may include a break taken by a mobile worker during waiting time or time which is not devoted to during by the mobile worker and is spent in a moving vehicle, a ferry or a train.

Breaks:

7 – (1) No mobile worker shall work for more than six hours without a break.

(2) Where a mobile worker’s working time exceeds six hours but does not exceed

nine hours, the worker shall be entitled to a break lasting at least 30 minutes and

interrupting that time.

(3) Where a mobile worker’s working time exceeds nine hours, the worker shall be

entitled to a break lasting at least 45 minutes and interrupting that period.

(4) Each break may be made up of separate periods of not less than 15 minutes

each.

Rest periods:

8 – (1) In the application of these Regulations, the provisions of the Community Drivers’ Hours Regulation relating to daily and weekly rest shall apply to all mobile workers to whom they do not apply under that Regulation as they apply to other mobile workers under that Regulation.

(2) An employer shall take all reasonable steps, in keeping with the need to protect the health and safety of the mobile worker, to ensure that those provisions are complied within the case of each mobile worker employed by him, to whom they are applied by paragraph (1).