Programme

13:30

Registration

13:50

Welcome - Victoria Phillips, Head of the Employment Rights Unit, Thompsons Solicitors

14:00

Marshalls Clay: Rolling back the practice of rolled up holiday pay - Steve Cottingham, Solicitor, O H Parsons Solicitors

14:30

Freelancing: turning a legal victory into an industrial practice - Martin Spence, Assistant General Secretary, BECTU

15:00

Tea and coffee

15:15

Bringing the Regulations into line with Europe - Brian Bercusson, Professor of European Law, King’s College London

15:45

Discussion

16:15

Close

About the seminar

The European Working Time Directive was implemented in the UK through the Working Time Regulations of 1998 and the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations of 2005. Despite that, the Labour Force Survey of March 2005 revealed that more than a million people work over 55 hours and 1 per cent of all UK employees have a working week longer than 70 hours.

Evidence from the International Labour Organisation and the Health and Safety Executive indicates that those who regularly work more than 48 hours per week are likely to suffer an increased risk of heart disease, stress related illness, mental illness, diabetes and bowel problems.

The TUC has published a poll that shows almost one in three of the workforce – more than eight million employees – say that long hours or stress have stopped them taking up some training or education in the last three years.

Six out of ten (2.2 million) long hours workers do not receive any extra pay for the extra hours that they put in, and unpaid hours are increasing while paid overtime is declining.

So what’s the problem? Trade unions maintain that the enforcement mechanisms in the Regulations are inadequate, that voluntary opt-outs are distorting the coverage and that overtime hours on night shifts are being ignored. Attempts by employers to include bank holidays in the four weeks’ entitlement and to roll holiday pay in with the weekly wage were only prevented by trade unions pursuing cases through the courts.

It is in this context that the seminar will examine:

• the original purpose of the Directive and the rights it provides
• what impact the UK Working Time Regulations have had on Britain’s long-hours culture
• how the debate on ending the UK’s opt-out is developing in Europe, and
• what improvements came be made to the current Regulations.

How to book

To reserve your place, complete the form in the seminar leaflet and send your cheque, made payable to IER, to the Institute of Employment Rights, 177 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9RL.

Cost

IER subscribers and members

£45.00

Trade unions

£60.00

Commercial

£120.00

Accreditation

This seminar earns hours under the Law Society’s Continuing Development Scheme and the General Council of the Bar’s New Practitioners’ Programme and the Established Practitioners’ Programme.