LEGAL
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12,11101:DIJCIED IINI ASSOCIATION! VVITIF41 FORE, A. WARREN! SCOL.ICITOFIS
Working Time Directive
Immobile workers
The daily limit for "immobile" workers is ii consecutive hours in each 24, although this rises to 12 hours for young workers (under 18). The weekly limit is an average of 48 hours taken over a period of 17 weeks. The formula used to calculate this is the aggregate number of hours worked in the reference period plus a compensating number for "excluded" days, divided by the number of weeks in the reference period.
Excluded days are taken to include annual leave taken under the Working Time Regulations; any sick leave taken; any maternity leave taken; and any period when the worker had agreed in writing to opt out
Five weeks For example: Sarah normally works 45 hours a week. She is contractually obliged to work overtime. She gets five week's paid holiday plus statutory days paid. Since the week commencing 2 April Sarah has just returned from being off sick for five days (in one week). She took three weeks' holiday in March and has taken two weeks in May. It is now Friday 1 June. You want Sarah to work overtime, so that she does 52 hours per week for the next six weeks (to the week ending 28 July). This is six weeks at 55 hours, totalling 330 hours. Is this allowed?
The 17-week reference period is rolling, so if we wish to plan six weeks ahead we must count 11 weeks back. Going back it weeks takes us back to 17 March. In that period Sarah worked for eight standard weeks, giving a total of 360 hours (8x45). Sarah is allowed to work for 816 hours over the entire 17 weeks, but that doesn't mean you simply deduct the days already worked from the total—any excluded days must also be added to the equation.
During the 17-week period Sarah took five days off sick and had two weeks' holiday. However, only one week's holiday should be taken into account because she is entitled to four weeks' paid leave under the regulations— the fifth week is not compulsory and so does not count as an excluded week. So, 90 hours (io days) should be added to the number of actual hours worked.
But hold on: we've missed something. There were also four Bank Holidays in this period. These are not required under the Working Time rules, so 36 hours (4x9) must be deducted from the total hours worked, reducing it from 360 to 324 hours.
So to calculate the amount of hours Sarah will work over the whole 17 week period, add the hours worked (324) to the 330 hours you want her to work over the next six weeks (the reason you started on this in the first place), add to this the 90 hours of qualifying excluded days (744), then divide this figure by 17. The result is that she will have worked for an average of 43.76 hours per week over the reference period. So, not only can Sarah be asked to work the six 55-hour weeks required, she can legally be asked to do more. This might seem a complicated equation to work through, but the detail matters, so good records are essential.
Night Workers
• Night time is classed as 23:oohrs to o6:oohrs. A night worker is anyone who works for three hours between those times. For typical night workers the rule is that over a 17-week reference period the worker must have averaged only eight hours of work in any 24.
For night workers involved in special hazards, or heavy physical or mental effort, no averaging is permitted: there is an absolute ceiling of eight hours in any 24. p