Enforcement

Enforcement is split between different authorities. The restrictions on the maximum working week, night work and work patterns impose obligations on employers and are enforceable by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or local authority environmental health officers, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVLA) and Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

Any employer who fails to keep to the regulations is breaking the law and can be prosecuted. Statutory rights to daily and weekly rest periods, rest breaks, compensatory rest and annual leave are enforceable by workers at employment tribunals. Annual leave and rest entitlement claims accounted for 29% of all employment tribunal claims/Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) claims in 2012. However, prosecutions for breach of the WTR are rare.

A claim for failure to limit weekly or night working time or to ensure rest breaks is now subject to an employment tribunal fee. A claim under the WTR was re-designated as a more expensive Type B claim, attracting the higher level of issue fee (£250) and hearing fee of £950 (following the Courts and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2014). The size of the fee is irrespective of the financial value or health and safety implications of the claim.