In addition to our new Fixed-term employment agreement, this month we have released a document allowing employees to opt out of the 48-hour working week under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Our Letter opting out of the working time directive creates the required notice that an employee needs to provide to his/her employer when they wish to agree to an opt-out.

The Working Time Regulations cover a range of different issues involved in an employee's working week, including statutory minimum holidays and rest breaks at work. However, one aspect of the Working Time Regulations which has proven most controversial in relation to Europe, has been over the issue of the 48-hour working week.

The 48-hour week limit was a European directive designed to help prevent employers from exploiting their employees by forcing them to work long hours. Individual countries were allowed to make use of an opt-out clause, allowing employees to sign an agreement in which they voluntarily agree to work more than an average of 48 hours per week. Britain was one of the countries which went for the opt-out and has since been under increasing pressure from other European countries to phase it out.

However, arguments have been made that workers should be able to put in more hours each week if they so choose and that some workers would miss out on valuable overtime pay if forced to keep to the 48 hour maximum. A study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in 2004 showed that out of 752 persons interviewed, 70% of these said that it was either partly or completely their choice to work longer than 48 hours per week.

Workers should not be expected to work longer than an average of 48 hours per week without first signing an opt-out agreement (averaged over a 17-week period). As an employer you can present this opt-out agreement to your employees; however, you cannot punish employees in any way if they refuse to sign the opt-out. So long as they agree, by signing the Letter opting out of the working time directive, you can prevent your business from falling foul of its responsibilities under the Working Time Regulations 1998.