6 May 2004 - Ministers Confirm Details of Road Transport (Working Time) Directive
David Jamieson, the Roads Minister, has announced the details of how the Road Transport (Working Time) Directive will be implemented in the UK.
The new UK regulations covering drivers such as heavy goods vehicle (HGV) and coach drivers, will allow a four-month reference period for calculating the average 48-hour week, which can be extended to six months. They will also allow night workers to work more than 10 hours for every 24-hour period.
In order to take advantage of the new changes, there will need to be a collective agreement or a workforce agreement at company level between the employer and employees. Mobile workers will still be bound by the limits under EU drivers' hours rules.
Night-time will be defined as:
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a period between midnight and 4am for drivers and crew of goods vehicles
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1am to 5am for drivers and crew of passenger vehicles.
Ministers have also confirmed that:
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self-employed drivers will not be covered by the UK regulations until March 2009
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voluntary work will not contribute towards the working time of mobile workers under the new Regulations
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workers who are occasionally subject to the Directive will be covered by the provisions of the Directive, including the 60 hour weekly limit, the 10 hour limit (when doing night work) as well as the daily/weekly rest requirement and break requirements
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companies have the choice (providing they have a collective or workforce agreement in place), to decide which method they want to use for calculating the average 48-hour week (they can either use a rolling reference period or one of the alternative options for fixing the reference period).
The Department for Transport will consult on the text of the new draft Regulations in early June 2004.
