9. Hours of work

Changes and developments since last year

• The European Commission issued an online public consultation as part of a review and assessment of the impact of the Working Time Directive across Europe.

• The physiotherapists’ CSP union called for the Working Time Directive to be strengthened.

• New European Flight Time Limitations for commercial air transport were agreed and come into force in February 2016.

• Hospitals in Scotland are to reduce the hours of junior doctors following a campaign by the father of a junior doctor who was killed in a car accident while she was driving home after several weeks of working long hours.

• New research has found that people who work more than 48 hours a week are more likely to consume “risky” quantities of alcohol; that shift workers are more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes; and that working shifts “chronically impairs cognition”.

• The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that union reps were “at work” for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations when they were attending health and safety and trade union meetings.

• There is also new case law on calculating holiday pay, looking at non-guaranteed overtime and the definition of “normal pay” and on carrying over annual leave into the next leave year.