We get paid based on a “basic” week of 55 hrs.
Have just been given a piece of paper to sign regarding a “Workforce Agreement” for the WTD…they want to increase the reference period to 26 weeks and exempt us from the 10 hr night working limit.
There is no mention of an exemption from the 48 hrs working week.
Are they legal in making our basic week 55 hrs? Is there an opt out option from the 48 hr limit?
While regular folk can opt out of the 48 hour limit for the their WTD there is no opt out of the 48 limit for our flavour of WTD. I don’t see there being a legal issue with the week being 55 hours, as breaks and POA do not count you can still do the 55 and fall within the 48 hour average over your 26 week reference period. It could be you are on a winner when they have to pay you 55 hours while you have time off to bring you down to the average when you haven’t had enough POA or break.
DonutUK:
We get paid based on a “basic” week of 55 hrs.Have just been given a piece of paper to sign regarding a “Workforce Agreement” for the WTD…they want to increase the reference period to 26 weeks and exempt us from the 10 hr night working limit.
There is no mention of an exemption from the 48 hrs working week.Are they legal in making our basic week 55 hrs? Is there an opt out option from the 48 hr limit?
There’s no opt out from the 48 hour week for mobile workers.
Does the 55 hour week you’re contracted to work include breaks ?
There’s nothing to stop your company contracting you to do a 55 hour week however there could come a time when you will need to have time off to reduce the average.
don’t forget the 48hrs is an average and doesn’t include poa and breaks - so take the 48, add 3.75hrs (5x45min breaks) and say 4 hours per week poa and you can easily be on shift for 55hrs plus a week and be under the 48hr wtd average. Same with the 10hr night limit, it’s 10hrs working time NOT duty time so it’s still possible to do a 15 hr shift with poa and breaks.
We don’t use POA, and the 55 hrs does include breaks.
Seeing as how we often sit waiting to tip or load for anywhere from 2 to 4 hrs and the tacho goes on break, then i guess we will be well below the 48 hr average.
DonutUK:
We don’t use POA, and the 55 hrs does include breaks.Seeing as how we often sit waiting to tip or load for anywhere from 2 to 4 hrs and the tacho goes on break, then i guess we will be well below the 48 hr average.
Yep. Sounds like a winner, you are guaranteed to get paid for several hours for doing nothing, probably 15 - 20 hours a week at least. 
Got told today that the company are saying that unless the Workforce Agreement form is signed, we are only allowed to work 48 hrs a week and Elite will only pay for us 48 hrs instead of our current 55 hrs! Also we would not be allowed to do any 15’s.
I will now be asking for them to show me where it says i can opt out of the 48 hrs? 
DonutUK:
Got told today that the company are saying that unless the Workforce Agreement form is signed, we are only allowed to work 48 hrs a week and Elite will only pay for us 48 hrs instead of our current 55 hrs! Also we would not be allowed to do any 15’s.I will now be asking for them to show me where it says i can opt out of the 48 hrs?
Load of tosh !!
You can only WORK (driving & other work added together) for an AVERAGE of 48 hours per week over 17 or 26 weeks in any event
There is no opt out of this for mobile workers
You could easily do 55 hours every week for 17 or 26 weeks providing only 48 on AVERAGE is WORK and the rest is made up of POA or BREAK
Why no 15s ■■? - I cannot think of any reason why not
If on nights WITHOUT an opt out agreement would simply mean that no more than 10 hours WORK can be done in any 24
Me thinks someone at your place needs educating
No opt out in place…5 identical nights… legally…
start shift 2000
driving & other work til 0100
Break til 0200
POA (or break) til 0300
driving & other work til 0800
end shift
12 hour shift with 10 hours of WORK
5 shifts of 12 hours = 60 hours but only 48 are WORK
Take the 5 X 1 hours breaks off if they are unpaid and that leaves 55 hours of paid time
ROG:
Me thinks someone at your place needs educating
I’d guess they’re educated and maybe trying to scare drivers into signing what they want them to sign.
Of course the upside for the drivers of refusing to sign a nighttime opt out will probably be no silly am starts.
ROG:
Why no 15s ■■? - I cannot think of any reason why not
Obviously without the night time opt out in place and only between 2 to 4 hours break in a shift and they don’t use POA, as posted by DonutUK earlier, a 15 hour shift will impossible.
Looks to me someone at the company is very switched on when it comes to the WTD and is trying to scare the drivers into agreeing the opt out by trotting out a bit of BS, knowing how drivers lap that sort of thing up.