Sian Davies, Partner, Employment Law
When Dolly Parton sang about the strain of the working week, I wonder if she considered that some people would choose to spend more time in the office?
Around 3.25million (12.7%) of UK employees reportedly work more than the maximum 48 hour working week. They are legally entitled to do this if they have opted out of the 48 hour limit. However there’s now a huge level of debate about whether the UK should get rid of this opt-out, effectively forcing people to limit the hours they work and, for some, the pay they receive.
Doesn’t seem fair when you put it like that, does it?
However there are good reasons for the limit – the main being health and safety. Employers are under enormous pressure to make sure that staff aren’t injured during the course of their work and this includes any sort of mental or physical harm they might come to because they’ve been working too much. Then there’s another side, brought to the fore last week when the Royal College of Surgeons warned that restricting doctors to working 48 hour weeks would put patients’ lives at risk (their arguments relate to continuity of care and the like.) Additionally some junior doctors are reported to feel strongly that they will not get sufficient training if they are not allowed to work longer hours.
So, that’s the conundrum: allow employees the freedom to choose to put more hours in or protect them, their employer and others from the perceived and actual risks posed by over-work. And all this is complicated by criticism of employers for undoing the good work which the 48 hour limit was set up to do. The TUC has said that, for many employees, the opt-out is not really an option but a requirement placed on them by their employer. They suggest that even those employees who haven’t signed an opt-out are pressurised into working more hours.
At present many businesses feel that this is additional red tape that they don’t need when struggling to survive. We must all hope that by the time any changes happen (in around 2012) this recession will be long gone.
For further information please contact Sian Davies T: 029 2047 4474 E: s.davies@capitallaw.co.uk
