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24th October 2011, 01:00 PM
kevin wooldridge Wrote:The Working Time Directive which proscribes rolled-up holiday pay, is primarilly a Health and Safety directive. Its reasoning behind the limit of a 48 hour week is that to work longer hours on a continuous basis is harmful to health and the consequences of tiredness and stress related ailments caused through overwork, are potential hazards in day to day work activities..........
All interesting stuff. Thanks Kevin.
But isn't it true employees can 'opt out' of the 48 hour week by ticking a box on their contract etc. (for instance on pipelines). Can employees similarly opt out of the no-rolled up holiday rule?
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24th October 2011, 01:00 PM
ecmgardner Wrote:.... because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
(Sorry Jack! Nothing personal, just couldn't hold it in.)
:p
Grin..........................
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24th October 2011, 02:14 PM
Quote:But isn't it true employees can 'opt out' of the 48 hour week by ticking a box on their contract etc. (for instance on pipelines). Can employees similarly opt out of the no-rolled up holiday rule?
Indeed. In fact at my last-but-one place of employment, my department was informed that the boss had decided that we were opting out of the 48 hour rule en masse, and that he had signed and returned the relevent form on our behalf. Doubtless it wouldn't have stood up in court, but the IT industry was very much an environment where you got on with your job and were grateful, or you hit the road. I'm seeing some distinct parallels.
Also, despite working some ridiculous hours (I once worked double the amount of hours I ought to have in the space of a month), it proved difficult to hit the 48 hour limit anyway. It is (or was - don't know if I have the current regs) averaged out over 13 consecutive weeks, meaning that I had to be working at a rate likely to kill the average elephant, for more than 3 months at a time. Think the reasoning was that we'd all have been off with nervous breakdowns long before hitting any legislative problems. My employer had some fantastic support systems in place for those who fell by the wayside. Presumably because they had such a lot of practice dealing with them...
