the company i work for have asked the drivers to sign an ‘opt-out’ of the 48 hr working week.a lot of us haven’t signed it,for various reasons.my question is,could any of us work for someone else at the weekend (within VOSA’s legal weekly rest requirements),and be legal despite going over the 48 hours?
carryfast-yeti:
the company i work for have asked the drivers to sign an ‘opt-out’ of the 48 hr working week.a lot of us haven’t signed it,for various reasons.my question is,could any of us work for someone else at the weekend (within VOSA’s legal weekly rest requirements),and be legal despite going over the 48 hours?
Mobile workers can’t opt out of the average 48 hour week so if you’re a mobile worker your employer is wasting his time with such a contract anyway, it’s not legal.
The 48 hour week is an average over the reference period, so if your reference period is 17 weeks you’re not legally allowed to average more than 48 hours per week over that period.
If you work somewhere else then legally you’re required to tell your employer about it so they can track your working time, I’ve no idea how many people do though 
When you have statutory holidays, each single day is counted as 8 hours for the RT(WT)R and each full week (Monday to Sunday) is counted as 48 hours, it’s the same with sick days and maternity/paternity leave.
This is because such leave is not allowed to reduce your average working time so official leave has to be neutral.
But if the employer kept you on POA for your week of work, although you would be at work and earning, you’d not be accumulating working time and thus could even out the hours?
Doesn’t affect me as much at the moment, work is so slack anyway at the moment but I’m sure when it comes down to it and get busy later in the year this time of slackness will be taken into effect. That Truck Timer software on my Android mobile helpfully tells me that at the moment my average working week is 27 hours… Since January 
Also, the agencies I am with get me to sign the 48hr opt out paperwork when I start plus some other opt out things too. I think the night working directive…
Clearly they think it’s worth doing… But we all know what agencies are like 
thanks for the reply.reading through the ‘individual agreement’.they request we sign to say we are prepared to work more than an average 48 hours in any seven-day period to provide flexibility for both ourselves and the company.they say ‘this agreement may be terminated at any time by me (the driver) provided that i give 3 months prior written notice to the company’.
carryfast-yeti:
…they request we sign to say we are prepared to work more than an average 48 hours in any seven-day period to provide flexibility for both ourselves and the company…
No you can’t if you are a mobile worker it’s just not legal.
As said you cannot legally go over an average of 48 hours working time over the reference period, you can work more than 48 hours in a week but it should average out at no more than 48 hours working time over the reference period.
If you want a bit more flexibility change the reference period to 26 weeks if they haven’t already, it probably won’t make a vast difference but it should make for a bit more flexibility during busy times.
carryfast-yeti:
…the company i work for …
Who did you say you worked for ?
bald bloke:
carryfast-yeti:
…they request we sign to say we are prepared to work more than an average 48 hours in any seven-day period to provide flexibility for both ourselves and the company…No you can’t if you are a mobile worker it’s just not legal.
Yes you can in a 7 day period, you can work up to 60h in a week as long as the average over the reference period is 48h at most.
Paul
repton:
Yes you can in a 7 day period, you can work up to 60h in a week as long as the average over the reference period is 48h at most.Paul
I know the authorities do not seem to bother but do many companies actually keep tabs of the 17/26 reference period 
repton:
bald bloke:
carryfast-yeti:
…they request we sign to say we are prepared to work more than an average 48 hours in any seven-day period to provide flexibility for both ourselves and the company…No you can’t if you are a mobile worker it’s just not legal.
Yes you can in a 7 day period, you can work up to 60h in a week as long as the average over the reference period is 48h at most.
Paul
What I meant was no you can’t over the reference period, I’m fully aware you can work up to 60 hrs a week.
bald bloke:
carryfast-yeti:
…the company i work for …Who did you say you worked for ?
hadn’t better say! but thanks for the info.everone.