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Changing times
Page 34
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Despite a last-ditch union attempt to change the government's mind on some details, the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations will come into effect on 4 April virtually unaltered from November's final consultative draft.
However. Department for Transport guidance notes on the regulations warn that there might be developments in new legislation or case law, which affect workers' rights.
This underlines the fact that the T& G., URTU and the TUC itself have three areas where they will continue to press for change during the next year.
The most contentious of these is periods of availability which will not, after all, be counted as working time. As a result the T&G warns many drivers will still clock up in excess of 65 hours a week. It will continue to promote its Drivers Charter which calls for a 48-hour maximum working week and £25,000 a year.
The unions also object to "occasional mobile workers" being excluded from the new regulations and allowed to opt out of the 48-hour week. And they are angry that employers can use holiday leave, above the statutory minimum of four weeks, to calculate the 48-hour week.
"We are on the horns of a dilemma," says a T&G spokesman. "We did not want to delay the Directive for which we had fought so long so we will raise these issues again during the review in six to 12 months' time."
As CM went to press the final regulations had just been published with similar regs for Northern Ireland to follow. The Transport Secretary did not have a Damascene conversion to the unions' cause and the flexibility— welcomed by the PTA and RBA— will remain.