Keenan and Riches’BUSINESS LAW

Chapter 16Employing labour

The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2003
(SI 2003/1684) deal with the above-mentioned excluded
categories and amend the main regulations as they are
applied to the relevant categories. The main provisions
of the regulations are as follows:

■In the case of workers in the armed forces or emer-
gency services, where their activities conflict with the
1998 regulations, crew members on board civil air-
craft and doctors in training, the following provisions
are disapplied:

• weekly working time and night work limits, the
  daily, weekly and in-work rest periods, the entitle-
  ment to paid annual leave, the right to a health
  assessment if a night worker and pattern of work
  protection for certain categories of worker. A 48-
  hour time limit for doctors in training will be phased
  in over a period ending on 31 July 2009.
  ■Regulation 8 inserts a 52-week reference period for
  workers employed in offshore work.
  ■The 1998 regulations are disapplied in their entirety
  in the case of seafarers, workers on board sea-going
  fishing vessels and workers on certain ships and hov-
  ercraft on inland waterways.
  It will be noted that the 1998 regulations have been
  made to apply to certain of the above-mentioned categ-
  ories of workers but with considerable derogation.

Road Transport (Working Time)
Regulations 2005

These regulations (SI 2005/639) came into force on 4
April 2005 in order to implement the Road Transport
(Working Time) Directive into UK law. They give work-
ing time protection for all mobile workers (in general
drivers and crew travelling in vehicles that are subject
to tachograph requirements) such as goods vehicles over
3.5 tonnes, coaches and inter-urban bus services. The
regulations cover mobile workers in the haulage indus-
try and those who work for companies with their own
transport section and agency drivers. They do not apply
to self-employed drivers working for a number of clients.
The detail of the regulations is beyond the scope of
this introductory text.

Police

The main regulations are applied to the police by reason
of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (Amendment)
Order 2005 (SI 2005/2241), effective from 1 September
2005.

Derogations

Employees whose working time is not measured or pre-

determined were exempt from the provisions relating to

the 48-hour week, daily and weekly rest periods, rest

breaks and limits on night work but not the holiday pro-

visions. Examples given in the WTR included ‘managing

executives or other persons with autonomous decision

making powers, family workers and ministers of religion’.

The above derogations were removed by the Working

Time (Amendment) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/99), effect-

ive from 6 April 2006. It appears that some organisations

had used the derogations to pressurise junior workers to

work in some cases limitless unpaid overtime. Deroga-

tions allowing this are now removed.

Collective and workforce agreements

The regulations allow employers to modify or exclude

the rules relating to night work, daily and weekly rest

periods and rest breaks and extend the reference period

in relation to the 48-hour week – but not the 48-hour

week itself– by way of agreement as follows:

■A collective agreement between an independent trade

union and the employer (or an employers’ association).

■A workforce agreement with representatives of the

relevant workforce or if there are 20 workers or fewer

the agreement may be with a majority of the workforce

which obviates the need to elect worker representatives.

As regards worker representatives, these may be rep-

resentatives elected for other purposes, e.g. health and

safety consultation.

■Individuals may also choose to agree with their em-

ployer to work in excess of the 48-hour weekly time

limit. This is all that an individual agreement can cover.

■In addition, a workforce agreement may apply to the

whole of the workforce or to a group of workers

within it.

These agreements can only last for a maximum of five

years.

Records: weekly working time

An employer must keep adequate records to show that

he has complied with the weekly working time limit.

The records must be kept for two years. It is up to the

employer to determine what records must be kept. Pay

records may adequately demonstrate a worker’s working

hours.

Similar provisions apply in regard to records showing

that the limits on night work are being complied with.

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