Impact of legislations in regulating the working Time - Essay Example

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. 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, 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. 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 regula