Out of hours / call out rest time

cyber69

cyber69

cyber69

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Hi GD, just a quick question on out of hours / standby rest time if anyone could help?

I worked 16 hours yesterday from leaving the house just before 8am to getting home at just before midnight and worked straight through with only a lunch break. This was doing an out of hours callout after 6pm to 12am.

I've checked my contract which I signed prior to going on call and no where does it state how much rest time i'm entitled to before I may be called upon again.

I've found information on government website's saying that I would be entitled to an 11hr break in any 24hr period and my boss is disputing this saying that I should still be available if I got home before 12am even if I've been working all day?

I suppose I could contact my HR dept to find out but it seems to differ as some employees do sign out for 11hrs sleep when they get home and do not get questioned whereas I am being singled out everytime when I do? We do have a different boss depending on which area of the country.
 
Depends on what the job is? Even then it's slightly complicated when you get into things like compensatory rest.
 
Worked 16 hours or out of the house for 16 hours? Employers don't usually count your daily commute as working time. e.g. In a previous job I'd often leave home at 5:30am and get home near midnight but three hours of that was my own travel time.

Was this a one-off or is it happening regularly?

If just a one-off then my view is "it happens, deal with it". It's one of the unfortunate side effects of agreeing to be on-call.
 
beh said:
Depends on what the job is? Even then it's slightly complicated when you get into things like compensatory rest.
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I'm an engineer based from home and usually work between 9am and 5pm most days on a callout basis.
 
Does being on call require you to work from a set location?

The 11 hours thing doesn't just kick in as soon as you are away front work for less than 11 hours. Its dependent on what your contract says, what hours your contracted too, what's voluntary or mandated, where your required to work from, etc etc.

Whe I worked on call in a previous job I found our that optional on call work that you could do from anywhere was petty much exempt from all EU working time legislation.
 
cyber69 said:
I'm an engineer based from home and usually work between 9am and 5pm most days on a callout basis.
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Between what hours are you on call? How is out of hours covered?

If working late to that extent is fairly infrequent can't see the 11hr thing being particularly relevant. Compensatory rest is an easy get out as it looks at the bigger picture over a week.
 
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CaNsA said:
The HR Dept. works in the interest of the company, not the employees.
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They are also there to protect the company from sucumbing to legally dubious practices.

OP - have a chat with your union, see what they suggest.
 
If you don't get the 11 hours, happens unfortunately, then compensatory rest kicks in. It should equate to 90 hours per week.
If you are contractually based at home and travel to sites on a job by job basis then traveling could be considered working time, simple test is this; do you get reimbursed for all miles traveled?
Worth noting that Christmas day and Boxing day would be counted as worked days if they are allocated as holidays from your annual leave.
Checking your contract should be your first task tbh.
 
Have a look at your contact. If I were to get called out at 6PM and get back at 12PM I would still be required to be at work at 8AM the next day. If it is after midnight though we get to add an hour on but we have to make this time up somewhere.
 
I worked 7am to 4am in the morning with only a normal half hour for lunch. My bosses complained I worked too much, their point seemed to be (and the unions) was there has to be 8 hours minimum between finishing a full shift and coming back to work.
Ala health and safety grubbins, my place had heavy machinery and the type of stuff you could lose a hand in so that was fair to say.
I was ok because as I pointed out to them, my normal hours didnt start till 1pm so that was a clear 8 hours from my extra long shift.

They were paying me triple time with night bonus towards the end plus a taxi to my door was nice change from the bus :D (the night boss was really easy on his workers) I was completely off work within a fortnight so I just sucked it up and carried on. It was xmas job and I wouldnt (couldnt) want to work like that permanently, it will shorten your lifespan no joke imho

Main deal is are you new, temp like me or been there two years, give a lot more leverage and rights. They cant work you into a grave, contracts that specify hours have to comply with uk and eu law and hopefully common sense.

Saying all that, I read junior doctors work 80 hours in a similar way you describe so its case of if you think its worth it too
 
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