Health and Safety Law 2024 (October 2024)
The court said that a worker who is required to remain contactable and able to return to their workplace when required will only be “working” when on standby if the limits placed on them “objectively and very significantly” affect their ability to use the standby time for their own purposes. This will depend on factors including the speed of response required. Only constraints that are imposed by law, a collective agreement, or by the employer are relevant. The fact that a worker has opted to live a long way away from their work is not relevant, for example.
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