Working hours question- beancounters

[basherX]

Following a particularly arduous quarter close I have been sent off to come up with some ideas for alleviating this or at least actively managing it.

We have an expectation that our employees will hit a peak for a two week period every calendar month but in recent quarters hours worked have become exceptional. Before I start I wanted to check what the actual rules are around this but, as far as my internet research tells me, I probably already have a problem- the minimum rest period appears to be 11 hours a day and it is not uncommon at peak periods for people to get substantially less than this for several days. In fact, even outside of peak periods we might be in breach of such a regulation.

Have I read this correctly? Is it the law that a person must have at least 11 hours a day rest regardless or is this a rolling average etc?

Thanks in advance

[Firefoot]

The basic rules are:

a limit of an average 48 hours a week (averaged over 17 weeks) on the hours a worker can be required to work, though individuals may choose to work longer
4.8 weeks' paid leave a year
11 consecutive hours' rest in any 24-hour period
a 20-minute rest break if the working day is longer than six hours
one day off each week
a limit on the normal working hours of night workers to an average eight hours in any 24-hour period, and an entitlement for night workers to receive regular health assessments.

Some of our employees work a double back, so they finish at 10pm and then come back to work at 2pm the following day. They have all signed an opt out from the working time directive to state that they choose to work this shift pattern. Other employees have opted out of the 48 hour rule as they like their overtime.

The working time directive is a bit of odd legislation in that the employee can simply opt out of certain parts. You may want to get your employees to take part in such an opt out.