Compensatory rest...?

[Arnoldthecat]

I wonder if there is anyone on here in the legal profession who specialises in employment law/ WTR and knows about compensatory rest..?

What do you want to know?

Well this relates to a family member and talking to him the situation is this. As an example, he might work a normal day and then be on call from say 1700 until 0800 the next morning. Any time when he is called out between 2200 and 0800 is granted as time off the next day if he is in work. i.e if there were two callouts each of 2 hours, he would go in four hours later the next day. But if he is called out between 1700 and 2200 there is no rest time granted. This seems wrong and may be even illegal under the WTR??

It doesn’t sound unlawful from what you’re saying here!

Most people are entitled to 11 hours uninterrupted rest between shifts. He’s probably getting that anyway, isn’t he, if he finishes at 22:00 and isn’t required in work until 09:00 the next day (assuming that’s what you mean by normal hours)? So compensatory rest doesn’t come into it if he’s adequately remunerated for the time. Commuting time doesn’t count in the 11 hour break, unless there’s an agreement to the contrary.

It also depends on what constitutes “working time” - it isn’t all statutory, it can be decided by an employer.

So can the provisions relating to compensatory rest - they can be varied or removed altogether with a relevant agreement (usually in the contract or a collective agreement).

Is it just the working extra hours in an evening that concerns you?

Yes i take your point,,so compensatory rest does not have to be continous?? if he were called out at 0200 and worked until 0300,he could not legitimately expect to come in to work 11 hours later from 0300 i.e 1400 hrs.?

It’s a complex and very grey area. His contract or other associated documents should deal with that issue. Legally, it depends what industry he works in and what his contract says. But the general position is that he is only entitled to take back the time he spent working, not to start the 11 hour rest break all over again. Otherwise, he could take a phone call at (say) 07:30 that lasts for ten minutes. He’d then miss the whole day of work! And if that carried on all week (for arguments sake), he could work for only 50 minutes but be paid for working 40 hours...