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Zach Reid
Member - 2 posts
hi folks, not sure on this one, so thought i would ask anyone if the knew the answer. I have checked various sites for the answer and cant find it, so unsure if i am just missing it.
what i am looking to find out is the legal side to a working week for a call centre agent.
we operate a shift pattern that is subject to change every month though its not a big change and we do try to keep rotations consistent however it isnt always possible for everyone. Our operational hours are Monday to Sunday, and there has been times where agents will be off two days mid week and in the weekend and then 5 days the following week from monday giving them the following weekend off, so technically they will be working the odd time on 8 days in a row, 3 from previous week, the following week 5 straight away. Agents are made aware if they feel this is too much and want to change this we will try and accomodate them, but rather than say anything, they tend to vent there anger at this shift pattern to others and its now been mentioned that it is illegal to make them work more than 48 hours in the one block. so i would like to address this and feedback to my team as well as my manager who sets the hours
hope this makes sense and thank you for any advice you can offer.
Rgds
Zach
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James Fairchild
Member - 257 posts
Theres two points here:
Re the weekly rest, I seem to recall this is either one day off in seven, or two days off in fourteen. That suggests to me that 12 days is the absolute maximum that can be done sequentially.
48 hour working week. I seem to recall that this is for any seven day period. An employee can opt out of this* but canNOT be forced to opt out or made to suffer a detriment if they do not opt out.
* = in which case their absolute maximum working week would be 78 hours.... six days a week, with 11 hours' rest between each
Note that a break between shifts of at least eleven hours is mandatory - i.e. if you are on a late shift say 15:00 to 23:00 one day, the earliest you can start your next working day is 10:00.
Different limits apply to under 18s.
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Dave Gill
Member - 16 posts
Zach,
There are quite a few additional points to note here. One being the 17 week average, another being the UK opt out clause.
You may find this link useful.
http://www.berr.gov.uk/employment/employment-legislation/employment-guidance/page28978.html
Good luck.
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Martin Stock
Member - 14 posts
Zach,
What James and Dave have said is all correct, but it's probably easier if you read the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the Working Time (Amended) Regulations 2002 yourself. That way you will understand it rather than reading the bits that have been 'cherry picked', as I had intended to do.
The regs can be read at www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1998/19981833.htm and www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20023128.htm.
When you feed back to your Manager it would be advisable to check that he is keeping a record of all hours worked as this is a legal requirement.
Happy reading and good luck.
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