Mobile workers



The situation for mobile workers is slightly more complicated. A mobile worker is defined as: “any worker employed as a member of travelling or flying personnel by an undertaking which operates transport services for passengers or goods by road or air”. Separate European directives for seafarers, aviation and road transport brought provisions on working time, rest and leave to these sectors.



The Merchant Shipping (Hours of Work) Regulations 2002 provide for:



• a minimum weekly rest requirement of 77 hours in any seven-day period and 10 hours in any 24-hour period; and



• four weeks’ paid annual leave and health assessments.



The Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004 limit the annual working time of airborne personnel to 2,000 hours (including overtime) and restrict flying time to 900 hours. They provide for seven rest days per month, 96 rest days per year, four weeks’ leave and “adequate” rest breaks. They also require “appropriate” health and safety protection for all mobile personnel, and provide for health assessments and transfer from night work on health grounds.



From February 2016, commercial air transport operators of planes had to transition to new European Flight Time Limitations. Aviation unions BALPA and Unite opposed the changes on the basis that they threaten to increase working time.



In 2011, pilots’ union BALPA won a key ruling in the European Court of Justice on behalf of British Airways pilots (Williams v British Airways [2011] EUECJ C-155/10) which concerned the calculation of holiday pay. Although the ruling was made under the Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004, the wording of these regulations was the same as that of the general Working Time Directive. As such, the ruling has had important implications for the rights of all workers to statutory holiday under the Working Time Directive, beyond the airline industry (see pages 170-176).