What are legal working hours?
Working time is limited to 48 hours per week. This does not include lunch breaks or time travelling to and from a place of work. An employer cannot insist that a P.A. works more than 48 hours a week but if it is agreed by both the employer and the P.A. in writing and signed by the P.A. then they can work extra hours if they choose. If the P.A. chooses to 'opt out', a signed agreement should be kept by the employer.
If a P.A. agrees to working more than 48 hours they must be allowed to cancel the opt-out agreement and ask for their hours to be reduced back to 48 hours at a later date as long as they give one weeks notice of this reduction in writing. It would be preferable to give longer notice to give the employer time to recruit additional P.A.s to 'fill the gap'.It is illegal to dismiss a P.A. if they ask for their hours to be reduced to 48 hours. For more information visit the Business Link Website.
Rest Break
P.A.s have the right to at least 1 day off each week, a rest break of 20 minutes if working more than 6 hours.
For more information click here.
Sleeping In
It is still unclear whether the hours that you sleep in is counted as hours worked unless you are disturbed and actually have to get up to give support.
The current position of the EU Working Time Directive is causing difficulties for many people because interpretation of what is classed as working time is unclear and largely ignored.
The EU working time directive is being revised. For the latest report click here.
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