The UK’s opt-out

In the UK, workers may agree to opt out of the 48-hour maximum working week and around 11% of UK employees continue to work more than 48 hours a week. Any agreement with the employer to opt out must be in writing. It must be voluntary and workers cannot be forced to opt out. If workers opt out, the employer must keep records of these workers.

Workers cannot agree to opt out of the 48-hour working week through terms incorporated in a collective agreement. Instead, each individual worker must freely agree to any opt-out, with full knowledge of the facts (Pfeiffer v Deutsches Rotes Kreuz [2005] IRLR 137).

The TUC has put together a model letter enabling workers to opt back into the 48-hour week. It is available at: www.tuc.org.uk/tuc/optout.pdf