9. Hours of work


Key changes and developments since last year


• In September 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that time spent travelling to and from the first and last appointments by mobile workers should be regarded as working time;


• New European Flight Time Limitations for commercial air transport came into force in February 2016;


• Junior doctors took strike action over the government imposing a new contract on them, which among other things, their union the British Medical Association, says removes safety measures that stop junior doctors from working excessive hours;


• The EFTA Court, which has jurisdiction with regard to EFTA States who are also members of the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – recently ruled that an 84-hour working week in the care sector is lawful;


• In September 2015, the TUC reported that the number of people working excessive hours had risen by 15 per cent since 2010, to 3,417,000 – up by 453,000 since 2010 – following more than a decade of decline in long hours working;


• New research published in the Lancet medical journal found that employees who work long hours have a higher risk of stroke than those working standard hours;


• The TUC has called on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to update its guidance on shiftwork and health, following mounting evidence of a link between shiftwork and ill health:


• Public service union UNISON has successfully established, in a long-running legal battle, that when taking holiday, workers should be paid their commission as well as basic pay;


• The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has issued a ruling on the calculation of the annual leave entitlement where hours of work increase from part-time to full-time.