IELTS READING TEST SET 1 TASK 4 GT – Working Time Regulations for Mobile Workers

What are the limits? 

• An average of 48 hours’ work per week. 

• In any single week up to 60 hours can be worked so long as the 48-hour average is maintained. 

• Night work is limited to 10 hours per night, unless there is a workforce agreement to work longer. 

• Statutory annual leave and any sick leave and/or maternity/paternity leave counts as working time. 

What counts as work?

In general, any activities performed in connection with the transport operation count as work, for example, driving, loading/unloading and those checks that are the responsibility of drivers, such as checking lights, brakes, etc. There are a number of periods of time that do not count as work, for example, travelling between home and your normal place of work, lunch or other breaks and periods of availability. 

Periods of availability are periods of time during which the mobile worker is not required to remain at their workstation but is required to be available for work, the foreseeable duration of which is known about in advance, for example: 

• Delays at a distribution centre.

• Reporting for work then being informed that no duties are to be undertaken for a specified period.

• Accompanying a vehicle being transported, for example by train. 

A period of availability can be taken at the workstation. Providing the worker has a reasonable amount of freedom (e.g. they can read and relax) for a known duration, this could satisfy the requirements of a period of availability.

Situations when a period of time should not be recorded as a period of availability:

• Hold-ups due to congestion, because the driver would be stopping and starting the vehicle. 

• Frequently moving up within a queue (e.g. waiting within a queue to load or unload) every other minute. 

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