Impact of Legislations in Regulating the Working Time - Essay Example

Impact of legislations in regulating the working Time Introduction Employment Law or Labor Law is the body of laws and administrative rulings, and precedents which addresses the legal rights of and restrictions on working people and their organizations. The labour movements have been instrumental in the enacting laws protecting labour rights in the 19th and 20th centuries. Labour rights have seen integral to the social and economical developments since the industrial revolution. Before proceeding to working Time Regulations I shall submit some other aspects related to this and these are must explained topics in this regard. History of working time regulations Before industrial revolution the working day varied between 11 to 14 hours, with the growth of capitalism and the introduction of machineries longer hours became far more common with 14 to 15 hours being norm. In 1817, Robert owen’s* Eight hour day movement**, which had its origin in the industrial revolution in Britain, gradually came up and finally led to the first law on the length of a working day, passed in 1833, in England limiting miners to 12 hours and children to 8 hours. The 10 hour day established in1848 and shorter hours with same pay were gradually accepted thereafter. The 1802 Factories Act was the first labor law in the UK. Legislations regarding the working time regulations Working time regulations were introduced in order to implement the European commission Time Directive which lays down minimum condition relating to weekly working time, rest entitlements and annual leave and make special provision for working hours and health assessments in relation to night workers and young workers. Working time regulation were laid before the House on 30th July 1998 and came to force on 1st October 1998.There are three legislations regarding the working time regulations enacted including the parent Act. They are, 1. Working time regulations 1998 2. Working time regulations 1999 3. Working time regulations (amendment) 2003 In 1998 Act workers in air, rail, sea, inland water way and lake transport, sea fishing, and other workers at sea are excluded. Armed forces, Police and other civil protection services also excluded from the purview of this Act. * Robert Owen Welsh Utopian Socialist father of Co-operative movement ** Rowan Cahill Eight hour day and the Holy spirit , R.N Ebbels The Australian Labour Movements 1850-1907,1965 ,pp 7-9,58-72 2 The Regulation 3 of working time regulations Act 1999 amended the existing provision which governs the 48 hour average maximum weekly working limit and the exclusion of that limit by agreement. It removes the obligation on employers to keep record of the hours worked by the employees who are entered into an agreement to opt out of the weekly limit. The regulation 4 of the 1999 Act extended the existing “unmeasured working time “extension (as defined in the 1998 Act) to workers whose time is partly “unearned and partly not.* Now let me to explore in detail the provisions of the working time regulations in the light of 2003 amendment Act .This prevails all over in the United Kingdom industries at present. I’ll also discuss the changes in the legislations regarding the above said Acts after the amendment in 2003 and the relevant case laws which plays an important role in making up the body of Working time regulations .Moreover I shall try to explain the impact of the provision of this Act in regulating the time for employees and remedies seek for the doubts raised in the various clauses. Working time regulations Act 2003 (Amendment) The main feature of the 2003 amendment act is the Act extended the working time measures in full to all non mobile workers in road, sea, inland water ways and lake transport and to all in aviation who are not covered by the Sectarian workers Aviation directive. The regulation applied to the junior doctors from 1st April 2004. Section 1 to 5 deals with mainly the aspects of working time. The person who has a contract of employment, who is being paid a salary or wages, who works for an organization business are comes under this Act. This includes part time workers and temporary workers and the majority of agency workers and the freelancers. Some one doing in-house training or trainee on work experience is also a worker. These regulations can not apply in the case of the persons who are self employed .The armed forces, the police, and emergency services are out side the scope of Regulations in certain circumstances. Amidst of these explanations there is a question regarding the status of the young workers i.e. whether the young worker employed in the aforementioned job categories like armed forces ,police etc can be under the purview of the Act. Section 1 clearly states that young workers ,i.e. above the minimum school leaving but under 18 , in the armed forces ,the police and emergency services, the aviation sectors and the road transport sector are covered by this provision. Working time Working time when someone is working, at his employer’s disposal and carrying out his activity or duties. This includes working lunches, traveling as the *Macfarlanes UK the working time regulations 1998 and 1999 –New developments part of his work, job related training ,time spent abroad working if a worker works for an employer who carries a business in Great Britain. The Act does not include the routine travel between the house and work, rest breaks when no work is done ,the time spent on traveling outside in normal working time and training such as non job oriented evening classes or day- release course. This clause of Section 2 is related to the following case. Sindicato de Medicos Assistancia Publics (SIMAP) Vs Conselleria de Saridad Y Conumo In this case , on 3 October 2000 the European Court of Justice pronounced a judgment concerning the status of “On-call time”. The judgment related to doctors employed in primary Health Care teams. It indicated that “on-call time” is the working time when a worker is required to be at his place of work. When a worker is permitted to be away from the workplace when “on-call” and accordingly free to pursue leisure activities,”on –call time” is not a working time. Sec.2 also deals with the limits of the working time. Let’s see to what extent the working time can be applied on the workers. Working time limits Sec.2 (a) and (b) of the working time regulations (amendment ) Act of 2003 and also 1998 ,1999 Acts states that workers can not be forced to work for more than 48 hours a week on average and young workers may not work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. The average weekly working time is normally calculated over 17 weeks .This can be longer in certain situations i.e. 26 weeks and it can be extended by the agreement (up to 52 weeks). But it is to be remembered that the working time limits do not apply if workers can decide how long they work. Here the question arises on the above said point that if a worker is ready to work more than the fixed time i.e. 48 hours a week what will be the alternative? An individual worker may agree to work more than 48 hours a week ,if so, he/she should sign an opt-out agreement which they can cancel at any time. Legislation on the working time regulations also protects the interest of the workers who is working in the night shifts.Sec.3 of the Act specifically lays down the provision regarding this. . 4 Working at night Sec.3 laid down the condition that he should work at least 3 hours at night within 11 pm to 6am and he should not work more than 8 hours daily on average including overtime. Nightly working time is calculated over 17 weeks .A night worker cannot opt out of the night work limit. Young workers should not work at night but there are some exceptions like hospitals, cultural, artistic, sporting, advertising fields etc. In this case, the young workers may work between 10 or 11 pm to midnight and 4 am to 7am if they are employed in agriculture, retail trading, bakery, hotel etc .Mobile workers are excluded from the purview of this provision. I’ve already mentioned how the legislation regarding the working time regulations regulates the working times of the workers. Now let me explain the measures taken by the legislation regarding the ‘rest’ required for a worker. Time off and rest breaks There are different kinds of ‘rest’ provided to the workers, like daily rest, weekly rest, adequate rest, compensatory rest etc. The workers are entitled to the period of 11 uninterrupted hours as daily rest and one whole day off a week in the case of weekly rest. Since the mobile workers are excluded from night work limit and they have to work in the night in certain cases, they are entitled to adequate rest i.e. regular rest periods. In the case of young worker, 12 uninterrupted hours as daily rest and 2 days off week as weekly rest .If young workers are working in the film and television industry they are entitled to get compensatory rest. If a worker is required to work more than 6 hours at a stretch, he/she is entitled to a rest break of 20 minutes and if a young worker is required to work more than 4 1/2 hours at a stretch they are entitled to a rest break of 30 minutes. Where a night worker involves special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain, there is an absolute limit of 8 hours on the worker’s working time each day that is not an average. Conclusion The working time regulations are the part of the package of protective and regulatory measures resulting from the implementation of European Directives. Undoubtedly we can say that it plays an important role in regulating the working time and thereby it reduces the rift between the employers and employees regarding the time working. There are number of legislations to come in and hope that these will also be landmark enactments. References 1.Cahil,Rowen The eight hour day and the holy spirit 2.Ebbels,R.N The Australian Labour Movement 1850-1907 publ.by Cheshire Lansdowne Press, Melbourne 1965,pp 7-9,58-72 3. Working time regulation Act 1998 sec.1 to sec.5 4. Working regulation Act 1999 sec.1 to sec.5 5. Working time regulation (amendment) Act 2003 sec.1 to sec.5 6. Macfarlane UK The working time regulations 1998-1999 –New Developments 18 Jan.2000 7. www.dti.gov.uk dti employment matters, employment policy and resolutions 6. www.montaq.com Litigation, Arbitration and dispute Resolution ***************** Read More