I work 50 hours CMing plus 14.5 at weekend EU working time directive?

[S88AHG]

Thats it really, does anyone CM full time and work at the weekend/evening too? Just wondering how the EU thing applies as we are self employed as Cms TIA even if you know where I can find this info would be grateful thanks

don;t think it applies to self employed and even if youa re employed you can agree to opt out of it anyway. It doesn;t seem to have any real teeth in the UK.

As kewcumber says: there is an opt out form you can sign but it doesn't apply to you. In France they are on a 35 hour week and that is all that's allowed, but here we seem to live to work. I know I seem to!

I know as a self employed person it doesnt apply to me but my weekend job is something else not CM ing so I am an employee for 14.5 hours a week, wondered how this works,cant find anything on t'internet in simple terms and am angry and confused!!!!

It's nothing to do with them, nor indeed their problem, that you work 50 hours a week as a childminder. As far as they are concerned, you are employed by them for 14.5 hours a week; the authorities won't have grounds to approach your employer as they have done nothing wrong. Plenty of people have to work more than one job, often three or four, and are not affected by this. I work 60 hours a week as a nanny, myself, and then do babysitting on top. The threshold for 'opting out' of the directive is 48 hours; that means that you can opt to work more than 48 hours if you wish, but if you don't opt out then you shouldn't work more than this. As you already do 50 as a CM, I don't think your boss has anything to be concerned about.

I'm totally confused as to what you think your employers might do in this case?

If you choose to work 50 hours a week as a childminder and you work for your employer - are you suggesting that the employer should refuse for you to work for them because you are over your hours in total? But wouldn't you then be out of a job? If that is what you want why don;t you just leave the employed job and just do the childminding?

Not sure at all what the question is getting at!

Yes anniemac - I think my partnership deed says something like 'I will devote myself in my entirety to the work of the partnership...' or words to that effect.

Oh bugger - what part of my brain was missing the day I signed up for that

I am angry and confused as I was harshly confronted about it, I have been increasing my CM hours as there is a risk I will lose my weekend job due to change of supplier, and we wouldnt know the decision for a while, I was unaware the time directive existed and therefore had no idea it was a problem. I am more than happy to sign the opt-out, but just wondered if it still applies as my CM hours are self employed and the time directive doesnt apply to self employed, and just wondered if anyone was in the same situation. I am gonna drop some hours from my weekend job but do wish to continue it, there are more than a handful of people where i work at the weekend who work full time and also part time at weekend so didnt see there was any problem with it. Thanks for all you advice hope this makes it clearer for those who asked.

i think if self-employed its up to you. I doubt that if you had 2 employers they'd both get together to agree that you only work 35 hrs per week. Plus its aggregated over 17 weeks and does not include holiday/sick leave so should you take any of them within the 17 weeks you generally work out under the max hours. Or something like that.

Last place I worked in the UK we were all doing 80+ hours per week and when we raised it were reminded of the generous holiday allowance.

My manager confronted me saying "I had no idea you were working that many hours outside of here, you need to sign an opt out form" She was really harsh about it, I have made no secret of the fact I am working full time CMing and no-one has mentioned it to me before including senior people at work. I am only dropping some weekend hours for my own sanity!!! We need more time together as a family its my choice she hasnt said I have to, but as I had no idea this EU thing existed I didnt realise I had to either inform her or opt out,

now you can tell her it is irrelevant as your CM is self employed and therefore not covered by the EU directive. Or sign teh waiver if it makes life easier, whichever you prefer.

Oh oh, this is interesting. So, if my nanny works for me for 60 hours a week, am I supposed to get her to sign this form???

Yep, I too have signed the form. In fact I am totally opposed to having the hours capped in law. I do not want to be restricted to a 48 hour work week (because it comes with a pay cut).

Sorry if I wasnt clear in the beginning I was cross!!! Thanks for all the advice feel better now and will go back to her with relevant info and see what she says

yes I am interested in how it applies to Nannies too.....does anyone know ? Mine does work over the directive hours, but I thouht domestic employees were exempt ?? Who knows..?

This was on the other thread on this problem official guide - it looks as though employed nannies would be covered by the directive.

Mohze, I think you need to actually look into French employment law as I believe it is stricter than the EU directive (at least until Sarkozy abolishes it, which he has promised to do).

Couldn't find anything that said domestic employees were exempt. But, this is crazy, all the nannies I know work more than 48 hours per week. I think 50 is standard. Mine works 60 (plus some babysitting, which is always optional but she always says "yes" to)

Yikes...what do you do Eleusis ? Obviously can't exactly cut nanny's hours...we have an aupair arriving soon, how could I work this in ? Mine does 7-7 x 5 days a week minimum...we pay her well and she gets lots of lovely perks ..Hmm

Well, we can obviously opt out of the directive since we are in the UK. But, honestly, it hasn't occurred to me to draw up this form.

I suspect if the issue was pushed in France, people would be inclined to take the nanny off the books and pay in cash for those extra hours. What else would people do? Hire two nannies? That's crazy.

No idea, though. French law might have an exception. And, Sarkozy might be abolishing the whole thing anyway.