Advice re employment contract

[MrsGuyOfGisbourne]

Hi - would be grateful is anyone has or knows of a small busines or practitioner where I can get advice on a contract of employment I have been sent for a job I have been offered - eg there is a clause in there there waiving my rights under teh WTD. Now I accept I will be working more than 48 hours per week sometimes, as a practicality, but don't se that I should sign away my actual rights - any views on this?
Many thanks!

Unless you waive your rights under the working time directive you cannot work more than 48 hours a week. This is averaged over 17 weeks, so you can go over some weeks provided you are under on others.

Even though it is in your contract you can cancel your opt out whenever you want by giving your employer 7 days notice (unless the contract specifies a longer notice period).

Many employers like to get employees to waive their rights under the working time directive so that they don't have to worry about tracking 17 week moving averages for the hours worked by each individual.

Thank you - that does now make sense - I didn't realise about the 17 wks - I can see otherwise it would be necessary to fill in timesheets etc which would be tedious and time consuming