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Euro Court settles drivers' hours row
Page 6
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• Years of confusion over the interpretation of drivers' hours regulations are set to end this spring following a crown court decision to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
It will be asked to rule on the interpretation of the 41-hour driving provisions and the meaning of the regulations in relation to daily driving and rest. A ruling is not expected for at least three months.
Judge Simon Fawcus, sitting at Manchester Crown Court, agreed last week that the legislation should be referred to Europe after accepting that hours rules can currently be interpreted in different ways. He wants to hear the European Court's ruling before he considers appeals against drivers' hours convictions by Kevin Charlton, transport manager of Lovers Lane Transport, Appley Bridge-based haulier Ray Wilson and one of his drivers, James Huyton.
The three men were convicted in September last year at Middleton magistrates, under the 'rolling programme' interpretation on the law, which says that looking back on any block of 41 hours driving a driver must have taken 45 minutes rest.
Two years ago the rolling programme took over from the 'wipe-the-slate-clean' method as the accepted way of reading the law. This followed the prosecution of Mayfield Chicks by Lancashire police at Burnley Crown Court — the first successful prosecution under the rolling programme interpretation. Since then there has been controversy over which interpretation of the EC drivers's hours law is correct.