Part-time driving and weekly rest periods

ASK THE EXPERTS SAFETY, LAW AND WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE FORUM (INTE
1

Hi
I work a rolling 2 day / 2 night / 4 day off shift pattern. I currently only drive 3 out my 4 days off however depending on how my shift works out, I think I may not be working within the weekly rest period limits.
Do I always need to take the full 45 off, even if say I only work 3 x 24 hr periods and take a 24 off. e.g. 24 hrs off, work 3 days and then 24 hrs off. If I did this it obviously totals 48 hrs off within a working week. Does anyone know if this would be legal?
I’m also not clear about making up reduced weekly rest. Can I reduce my weekly rest to 24hrs for 2 consecutive weeks and then make the lost hours up in the third week? If I never worked a 4 day off period this would give me 96 hrs clear and would compensate for the reduction in the previous 2 weeks. Does this sound legal?
An example of a working week would be;

Mon - 1800-0000 other work (night)
Tues - 0000 - 0800 other work (remainder of night)
Wed - 0800 - 1800 driving
Thurs - 0800-1800 driving
Fri - 0800-1800 driving
Sat - 0800 - 1800 other work (dayshift)
Sun - 0800-1800 other work (dayshift)

This example gives me 24 hrs off between 0800 Tues morning and 0800 Wed morning. I would then start the next week with finishing at 1800 on the Sunday and not starting work again until 1800 Monday night, so again another 24hrs off. So in the space of the 8 days I would be having 2 x 24hrs off. In the third week I would do no driving so I would have the 4 full days off (96 hrs) Do you think this would be legal? Do you know if I have to make up the reduced hours by the end of the third week, or the fourth week?

P.S I have listed a nightshift over 2 days because as you know the day starts at 0000, so this is the reason I have written down one single nightshift covering two 24 hr periods.

2

ggm1968:
Hi
I work a rolling 2 day / 2 night / 4 day off shift pattern. I currently only drive 3 out my 4 days off however depending on how my shift works out, I think I may not be working within the weekly rest period limits.
Do I always need to take the full 45 off, even if say I only work 3 x 24 hr periods and take a 24 off. e.g. 24 hrs off, work 3 days and then 24 hrs off. If I did this it obviously totals 48 hrs off within a working week. Does anyone know if this would be legal?

Two reduced weekly rest periods cannot be counted together to make one full one, it must be an uninterrupted period of at least 45 hours for a full weekly rest.

ggm1968:
I’m also not clear about making up reduced weekly rest. Can I reduce my weekly rest to 24hrs for 2 consecutive weeks and then make the lost hours up in the third week? If I never worked a 4 day off period this would give me 96 hrs clear and would compensate for the reduction in the previous 2 weeks. Does this sound legal?

No, in any two consecutive weeks you must have at least one full weekly rest period, at least 45 hours, and one reduced rest period, at least 24 hours. Any compensation for a reduced weekly rest period must be taken before the end of the third week following the reduction.

So reduced rest in week 1 = compensation before end of week 4.

ggm1968:
An example of a working week would be;

Mon - 1800-0000 other work (night)
Tues - 0000 - 0800 other work (remainder of night)
Wed - 0800 - 1800 driving
Thurs - 0800-1800 driving
Fri - 0800-1800 driving
Sat - 0800 - 1800 other work (dayshift)
Sun - 0800-1800 other work (dayshift)

This example gives me 24 hrs off between 0800 Tues morning and 0800 Wed morning. I would then start the next week with finishing at 1800 on the Sunday and not starting work again until 1800 Monday night, so again another 24hrs off. So in the space of the 8 days I would be having 2 x 24hrs off.

That would be fine. However in the first week you have only had a reduced weekly rest period therefore the next week requires a full weekly rest. The second 24 you have from Sunday 18:00 to Monday 18:00 serves no purpose, other than to allow you to begin another 6x24-hour periods before a weekly rest is due, and it requires no compensation.

If the second week was a repeat of the first, when you finish at 18:00 on the Sunday you will need to start a weekly rest of at least 45 hours, meaning you cannot resume work until 15:00 Tuesday at the earliest and will rule out your Monday night shift. That will give you a reduced rest in week 1 and a full rest in week 2 and will meet the requirements of the regulations.

If the second week does repeat the first, the fact you again have another reduced rest period from 08:00 Tuesday to 08:00 Wednesday in that week makes no difference to this and in fact this reduced rest serves no purpose at all in your case.

The most important thing to remember is if you look at any two consecutive weeks you must see at least one rest period of at least 45 hours and this will affect how many of your 4 rest days you can work each time they come up.

3

Would this work■■?

4 x other work
3 driving
4 x other work
1 x off making 48 hours off
2 driving
4 x other work
3 driving
4 x other work
4 x off making 96 hours off
4 x other work

■■?

4

Thanks Coffeeholic.
That’s been a great help in clearing things up for me. To be honest I was pretty sure I needed the full 45 off however with all the side issue’s re “reducing weekly rest” and “making it up over a number of weeks” I just wanted to run my proposed shift pattern past someone else.
You can look at / read rules to the point where you can’t decide if what you are doing fits in with the rules, or not!
You have replied in a way that I can understand and I’m now going to review what I work to keep myself in line with the law.
Can I just check that “any” other work I carry out counts towards my rest / work allowance? In my other job I do no driving at all.

Thanks