lankyphil:
Well if your shifts include a weekend, which is when TA training is on, then obviously your job (as it is the mortgage payer) comes first. So you don’t attend any weekend training. So you get told to hand your kit in. Or you scive off your job lots to go playing toy soldiers. Which makes you loose your job…Oh, don’t forget. 9 out of 10 TA units are run by ex-regulars who sleep at the TA centre and find it hard to understand the fact that you have a job/wife/kids/a life outside of it and can’t seem to understand that your employer wants more than half an hours notice for time off…
There is a get out from the EU drivers hours regulations with the TA too.
Reservists who drive for a living can take part in weekend military training after the Government secured an important exemption from EU drivers’ hours rules.
The European Commission has agreed that professional drivers can take part in Reservist exercises at the weekend without breaking general rules on weekly rest requirements. It means a driver who finishes his normal driving duties on a Friday can complete a 34-hour period of military training and then resume his normal driving duties again on a Monday morning - as long as new safeguards are met.
The new exemption will benefit Reserve Forces in the Territorial Army, Royal Navy Reservists, Royal Marine Reservists and Royal Auxiliary Air Force as well as Cadet instructors.
The following safeguards have been incorporated into the exemption to ensure that road safety is not jeopardised:
The exemption will apply to 15 days’ annual camp and 10 weekend training sessions per annum - a total of 35 days.
Weekend training will not be allowed to take place on consecutive weeks (other than in respect of the 15-day annual camp);
a regular daily rest period of 11 hours must be taken between the end of weekend training and start of work for the primary employer;
a regular weekly rest period of 45 hours must be taken no later than at the end of the sixth day following a period of weekend training.
The Ministry of Defence will issue guidelines that outline how drivers can manage their reserve service in accordance with the exemption.