With my job there’s no need for me to take weekend reductions and therefore when a work mate asked me if what he had done was legal, I said I would post on here for advice from people who know better than me.
He came off a long weekend rest and started work on:
Wed - work
Thur - work
Fri - work
Sat - work Finish 19.00
Sun - off
Mon - work Start 08.00
Tue - work
Wed - work Finish 22.00
Thur - off
Fri - work Start 08.00
Sat - work Finish 23.00
Sun - off
Mon - work Start 09.00
Tue - work
Wed -work
Thur - work
Fri - work Finish 19.00
Sat - off
Sun - work Start 08.00 Finish 13.30
Mon - off
Tue - off
Wed (today) work - start 07.30
When does he need to compensate, and by how much?
Has he already become illegal etc?
A full explanation would be grateful, thanks in advance.
Limestone Cowboy:
Full Weekly Rest of several days here
Wed - work
Thur - work
Fri - work
Sat - work Finish 19.00
Sun - off
Reduced Weekly Rest 19h00 Sat to 08h00 Mon = 37 hours
Mon - work Start 08.00
Tue - work
Wed - work Finish 22.00
Thur - off
Reduced Weekly Rest 22h00 Wed to 08h00 Fri = 34 hours
Fri - work Start 08.00
Sat - work Finish 23.00
Sun - off
Reduced Weekly Rest 23h00 Sat to 08h00 Mon = 33 hours
Mon - work Start 09.00
Tue - work
Wed -work
Thur - work
Fri - work Finish 19.00
Sat - off
Reduced Weekly Rest 19h00 Fri to 08h00 Sun = 37 hours
Sun - work Start 08.00 Finish 13.30
Mon - off
Tue - off
Full Weekly Rest 13h30 Sun to 07h30 Wed = 66 hours
Wed (today) work - start 07.30
When does he need to compensate, and by how much?
Has he already become illegal etc?
Well, there’s a full weekly rest in week1 right at the start, and the other full weekly rest starts before midnight sunday so you can count it as being in week 3, so as far as the rules about having a full rest every other week goes, it’s legal.
Now, on this next bit I could be wrong (and I’m sure someone will point it out if I am). Between the first and third reduced weekly rest period I’ve highlighted above there are only a total of six shifts. I think therefore that the second of those reduced rests could count as a normal 11h daily rest plus the 8h of compensation required for the first reduced rest (plus an extra 15 hours as it happens, but that’s not relevant I don’t think). This means that compensation is required for the 33h and 37h reduced rests towards the end, the compensation required being 12+8 = 20 hours, so the 66h full weekly rest at the end is enough to cover the full 45h rest and those 20h.
So in conclusion, if the above is at least vaguely true, it’s legal and already fully compensated.
Paul
repton:
Now, on this next bit I could be wrong (and I’m sure someone will point it out if I am). Between the first and third reduced weekly rest period I’ve highlighted above there are only a total of six shifts. I think therefore that the second of those reduced rests could count as a normal 11h daily rest plus the 8h of compensation required for the first reduced rest (plus an extra 15 hours as it happens, but that’s not relevant I don’t think). This means that compensation is required for the 33h and 37h reduced rests towards the end, the compensation required being 12+8 = 20 hours, so the 66h full weekly rest at the end is enough to cover the full 45h rest and those 20h.
So in conclusion, if the above is at least vaguely true, it’s legal and already fully compensated.
Paul
This is also what I think, but with now being able to only take 24 hours weekly rest I didn’t know if that length of period would count as resetting the weekly clock. This discussion took most part of my break up today, the offending driver not realising until he was down the road on Sunday that he may not be legally allowed to drive. This is about the only area of tacho law that I havn’t got a good grasp of which is why I have brought his case to you good people 
Sorry but I don’t really agree that the 34 hour rest isn’t a reduced weekly rest, if you deduct the 8 hours compensation for the first reduced weekly rest it still leaves a total of 26 hours of rest, my understanding is that this would be a reduced weekly rest as it’s over the 24 hours, so it would need to be compensated for.
Having said that, I would like to be shown to be wrong about that, because I think it’s ludicrous that any rest of over 24 hours is classed as a reduced weekly rest and has to be compensated for, weather or not you want it to be a reduced weekly rest.
Also if the rest period up-to today is to be counted as a weekly rest for last week, then he will need to have at least a reduced weekly rest period beginning before midnight Sunday.
‘regular weekly rest period’ means any period of rest
of at least 45 hours,
‘reduced weekly rest period’ means any period of
rest of less than 45 hours, which may, subject to the
conditions laid down in Article 8(6), be shortened
to a minimum of 24 consecutive hours
Firstly, thaks to ROG for sending the PM about this one. Trouble was my PC has had one of those Windows ‘Mega Death’ weekends and have only just got things up and running.
Simple answer; Legal
Longer answer; Firstly have to assume that ‘long weekend’ means Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all days off. If that is the case then what you effectively have is two rest periods one in week prior to all this and one in week one before work commences on Wednesday. Because you had Monday and Tuesday off it could be viewed that you have had a Regular Weekly Rest in week one. The 37 hours at the end of week one is not a Reduced weekly rest and doesn’t need compensating as such, the week already has a Regular weekly rest period in it.
In week 2 we have two rest period that are 34 hours, each. As this week contains a Reduced weekly rest period, compensation of 11 hours added to a daily or weekly rest period before 24:00 on Sunday of week 5 is required.
In week 3 there is a rest period of 37 hours from Friday evening to Sunday Morning. This could be split 24:00 hrs used as a weekly rest to allow the work to be done Sunday morning to early afternoon. This would leave 13 hours, of which 11 could be used to compensate for the Reduced weekly rest taken in week 2.
Also in week 3 we have a rest period of 66 hours starting on Sunday at 13:30 and not finishing until 07:30 of Wednesday in week 4. This would be attached to week 3.
In summary, we have a Regular weekly rest in weeks one and three and a Reduced weekly rest in week two, which is compensated in week three.
There is something very important to bear in mind here. It is believed that a long rest period that spans two weeks can be treated as two separate rest periods and attached to individual weeks. This has yet to be tested in Court. If the Court held the same opinion then the scenario given is legal. If they do not support the opinion, then the scenario is not legal because the weekly rest periods in weeks one and two are both Reduced.