Working time directive

[beast5680]

well it seems once again Brussels will override the our government when they vote on the decision not to allow us to opt out of the working time directive
I listened to someone on the news saying it was the popular opinion amonst the workforce that they didnt want to work more than 48 hours a week-Rubbish! every one i have spoken to has said they will be out of pocket
While i would defend anyones right not to work more than 48 hours i would also support the right to work more than 48 hours if you wish to, why should i be penalised because i want to work hard and earn more money? its the overtime money i use to pay for my offroading amongst other things.
The company i work for now is less than 1 year old and we are working hard and doing some long hours where needed to make the company a success, there are two of us at present ,my boss and myself.
if someone breaks down on thurs afternoon i dont say "sorry mate done me 48 off home till monday"
what will happen to those who have a couple of jobs to earn extra cash? In my last job things got tight at home as there was not much overtime as we were not busy so i did relief driving at weekends to earn extra cash, somehow i cant see employers paying you more to make up for no overtime.
the french and germans say we have the british disease of not wanting to leave work on time, well i,m proud to be ill then and will carry on working hard

Rant over

[old joe]

couldn't agree with you more mate

I'm Contracted for 36hrs a week however more often than not i have work more and sometimes a double shift cause somebody's gone sick and they need somebody to cover.

this will not only hit us at work Security but drivers everybody all i say up your strasbourg telling us what to do take your bill and well its family forum

dazza      :twisted:  :twisted:

[Manicminer]

The British economy is strong compared to Germany and France.
The only way to make us less competitive is to cut down on the amount of work we do then they suddenly have a stronger/more competitive economy.
Politics on an European scale :roll:
Me grabs the World Atlas and have another look at Canada

[thermidorthelobster]

The flip side of the argument is, I get paid the same however much I work.  I signed the opt-out form because I felt it would not reflect well on me if I didn't.  So sometimes I can be working all hours of the week and can't do much about it.

Personally, it would probably be a good thing for me if we didn't opt out, because I'd get paid the same, but not be under pressure to work long hours!

Not that I don't sympathise with everybody in the other position, but that's it from my perspective.

Note that France is more productive per capita than the UK, but they work many fewer hours per year than we do.  The general concensus is that they're more productive when they do work, because they don't find it such a grind.  Or something like that.

[Bob696]

The flip side of the argument is, I get paid the same however much I work.

ditto

[Guy90]

I get the same if I work 37 or 60 (and its typically 60). I don't have the type of job where I can just sign off.

I wonder how it will be enforced?

[Andy the Landy]

The flip side of the argument is, I get paid the same however much I work.

ditto

Same here - if I work 6 hours I get paid the same as if I work 12 hrs - more often its 12 hrs :(

[nzrover]

Christ - that's unworkable.  The place I used to work did 10 hour days Mon-Thur with the option of overtime every night, another 10 overtime on Friday and up to 6 hours on a Saturday.  My normal week was about 55 hours without working the Saturday, and everything over the 40 hours was an extra payment.  Without doing those hours I'd never have been able to afford a house or a 4WD to play in.  All this stupid directive will do is increase poverty and decrease the standard of living for everyone.

[datalas]

the trouble is that a *lot* of places whilst having the "free option" to "opt out" weren't quite as free with that option as you might imagine.  Tesco's for example were quite happy for you to work no more than 48 hours a week, however their deputy managers are expected to do a minimum of five ten hour shifts.  You could opt out of doing more than 48 hours if you wished, but you would then be unfit for the job.

It's a difficult one, and I can *sort* of see why they wanted to address the issue,  since a lot of companies now have no concept of overtime and have clauses in their contracts that stipulate you work XX hours a week; or however many hours are required to work the job in hand.  This has always been the case since I started being paid a yearly salary and is, at least, a tad unfair.  I ended up working 76 hour weeks for not a shred of overtime under threat of being unemployed if I didn't.

It's presumably situations like that which the directive is setting out to circumvent,  however as you say it is inherently unworkable and unfair to the employees of people with a hint of morality to their names...

I rather suspect that it'll be largely ignored by the companies small enough to not be noticed.  How this will effect the "larger" places is the more interesting question, principly the NHS ...

Guess time will tell

[muddysteve]

i think you'll find the 48 hours does not include voluntary unpaid overtime or work at home as usually carried out by managers and salaried staff etc.

luckilly i'm paid hourly for o/t and already governed by rules saying how many hours i can work a week etc. also as a matter of interest you can work more than 48 hours in a week but your averavge must be less when worked out over the year


Steve

[thermidorthelobster]

You could opt out of doing more than 48 hours if you wished, but you would then be unfit for the job.

My lot were very "fair" about the whole thing and HR didn't give any bias at all as to whether people should or should not sign the opt-out.  However, I felt that not signing couldn't feasibly be compatible with having a long and varied career, so I signed, like everybody else.  They went out of their way not to apply any pressure, but it's hard to see how you're going to be in line for promotion if you work 20 hours a week less than everybody else.

The French would never have signed it!

[ChrisW]

I was watching Paxman having a right winge at some euro bod on the telly last night - this bloke was saying the reason they have raised it is because at the moment the average working week is calculated from a 17week period and that this was making the picture look twice as bad. They were arguing for the case for the assessment to be made over a 12month period instead which would then probably negate the necessity of opting in or out of such a scheme as most people's weekly hours when averaged over 12months wouldn't exceed the 48 hours.

[muddyweb]

I was watching Paxman having a right winge at some euro bod on the telly last night -

I thoroughly enjoyed that... he wasn't taking any prisoners ;-)

[davidlandy]

I get the same if I work 37 or 60 (and its typically 60). I don't have the type of job where I can just sign off.

I wonder how it will be enforced?

simple - pay the police overtime

[JeepCher53]

Like some others, I don't get paid overtime.  My contract says: "The hours required to do the job properly" and that includes staying away, driving more hours in a day, sometimes, than lorry drivers do, trying to train NHS staff how to suck eggs (oh, is that how you take blood pressure :shock: ) moan, moan, moan.  At the end of the day, I love my job but it really gets me mad when I do earn a little bit extra  that most of the extra is taken in tax - so what's the point