Employment Matters February 2007

It's all work work work!

A WORKING TIME ROUND-UP

PUTTING THE HOURS IN…

The Working Time Regulations 1998 have been around for some time now, but they are still causing ‘ripples’ for employers.

The regulations limited the number of hours a worker can legally work in a week and introduced the right to rest breaks and holidays.

As we all know the UK currently has an opt-out of the 48-hour working week (the right for an individual employee to agree with their employer that the cap on their working hours will not apply to them).

There has been much talk for sometime of this opt-out being removed and we can confirm… they’re still just talking about it and there are no firm signs of the opt-out being removed as yet.

The most recent talks took place in June 2006 and the 25 EU states failed to reach an agreement on its removal with the result that the status quo remains.

The two cases mentioned here highlight the importance of monitoring employee’s hours of work, regardless of the 48-hour opt-out being in place.

Award-winning chef Robert Kisby has recently won his case for unfair dismissal from his high-profile job at Le Mont restaurant in Manchester.

Mr Kisby was forced to resign from his position due to unbearable pressure caused by working up to 80 hours a week.

The Tribunal commented “The Working Time Directive is founded on the premise that excessive working hours and an absence of proper periods of holiday and work-free periods have an adverse effect on health and safety …. Nothing was done to ensure [Mr Kisby’s] working hours were kept in reasonable bounds.“

On the same theme in a recent case, a licensed house manager received £21,840 damages for psychiatric injury caused by working excessive hours without adequate support.

He was working between 89 and 92 hours seven days a week and had refused to sign the opt-out under the regulations, as he was concerned about the hours he was working.

The Court found that when deciding whether psychiatric injury is reasonably foreseeable it is proper to take into account that the employer is breaching the maximum average 48-hour working week.

Hone v Six Continents Retail 2006