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WORKING
TIME REGULATIONS
SECTION
1: WHO’S WHO
A worker
is:
- someone
who has a contract of employment, or
- someone
who is paid a regular salary or wage and works for an organisation,
business or individual. Their employer normally provides the
worker with work, controls when and how the work is done, supplies
them with tools and other equipment, and pays tax and
National
Insurance
contributions. This includes part-time and temporary workers
and the majority of agency workers
and freelancers.
Someone doing
in-house training or a trainee on work experience - for
example, doing a National Traineeship
- is also a worker. A young
worker is someone who is above the minimum school leaving
age but under 18.
Where the
regulations do not apply
If you are self-employed, running your own business and are
free to work for different clients and customers, the Working Time
Regulations do not apply to you.
Certain
workers are not subject to these regulations, because they will be
governed by sector-specific provisions. These are:
- Sea transport, as covered
by the Seafarers' Directive (1999/63/EC)
- Mobile workers in inland
waterways and lake transport
- Workers on board sea going
fishing vessels
- Air transport, as covered
by the Aviation Directive (2000/79/EC). This Directive
affects all mobile workers in commercial air transport
(both flight crew and cabin crew), but not workers
employed in General Aviation
Other workers are only subject to
certain provisions of these regulations. These are:
- Mobile workers in road
transport, as covered by the Road Transport Directive
(2002/15/EC). This Directive affects mobile workers who are
participating in road transport activities covered by EU
drivers' hours rules. This includes drivers, members of the
vehicle crew and any others who form part of the travelling
staff
From
the 1st August 2003, workers subject to the Road
Transport Directive benefit from the entitlement to paid annual
leave and the right to health assessments for night workers under
the Working Time Regulations.
The
armed forces, the police and emergency services are outside the
scope of the regulations in certain circumstances.
However,
young workers
in the armed forces, the police and emergency services, the
aviation sector and the road transport sector, are covered
by the young workers provisions in the Working Time Regulations.
The
Department for Transport will implement separate working time
legislation in the transport sector. See section Contacts
for other working time legislation for contact details.
Sectors
previously excluded from the regulations
On
1 August 2003, the Working Time Regulations extend cover to the
following sectors:
- Workers
in air transport, other than those covered by the Aviation
Directive.
- All
workers in rail transport.
- Workers
in road transport, other than those subject to the Road
Transport Directive.
- Non-mobile
workers in sea fishing, sea transport, inland waterways and
lake transport.
- All
workers in other work at sea, such as offshore work in the oil
and gas industry.
From
1 August 2004, the regulations will extend in full to cover
doctors in training with the exception of the weekly working time
limits and special rules for the reference period, which will be
phased in over a further five-year period (see section Special
daily and weekly working time limits).
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