Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland
EMPLOYMENT
Made
3rd February 2000
Coming into operation
5th March 2000
The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment, being a Department designated for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(1) in relation to measures relating to the organisation of working time(2), in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the said section 2(2), and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 and shall come into operation on 5th March 2000.
2. The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(3) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
3. The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998(4) shall have effect as amended by Regulations 4, 5 and 6.
4.—(1) In regulation 4—
(a)for the words “Subject to regulation 5” in paragraph (1) there shall be substituted the words “Unless his employer has first obtained the worker’s agreement in writing to perform such work”;
(b)at the end of paragraph (2) there shall be added the words “and shall keep up-to-date records of all workers who carry out work to which it does not apply by reason of the fact that the employer has obtained the worker’s agreement as mentioned in paragraph (1)”; and
(c)for the words “by virtue of regulation 5” in paragraph (7)(d) there shall be substituted the words “by reason of the fact that the employer has obtained the worker’s agreement as mentioned in paragraph (1)”.
(2) In regulation 5—
(a)paragraphs (1) and (4) shall be omitted; and
(b)in both paragraph (2) and paragraph (3), for the words “paragraph (1)” there shall be substituted the words “regulation 4(1)”.
5. Regulation 20 shall be re-numbered as paragraph (1) of that regulation, and after that provision the following paragraph shall be inserted—
“(2) Where part of the working time of a worker is measured or predetermined or cannot be determined by the worker himself but the specific characteristics of the activity are such that, without being required to do so by the employer, the worker may also do work the duration of which is not measured or predetermined or can be determined by the worker himself, regulations 4(1) and (2) and 6(1), (2) and (7) shall apply only to so much of his work as is measured or predetermined or cannot be determined by the worker himself”.
6. The following regulation shall be inserted after regulation 34—
34A.—(1) The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment shall, after consulting persons appearing to it to represent the two sides of industry, arrange for the publication, in such form and manner as it considers appropriate, of information and advice concerning the operation of these Regulations.
(2) The information and advice shall be such as appear to that Department best calculated to enable employers and workers affected by these Regulations to understand their respective rights and obligations under them.”.
Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment on 3rd February 2000.
L.S.
R. B. Gamble
Senior Officer of the
Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment
(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations further amend the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998, S.R. 1998 No. 386 as amended by S.R. 1998 No. 422 and S.R. 1999 No. 133, which implement Council Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (O.J. No. L307, 13.2.93, p. 18).
Regulation 4 amends regulation 4 of the 1998 Regulations, which limits the maximum weekly working time of workers to an average of 48 hours, and regulation 5 of those Regulations, which provides for that limit not to apply in relation to a worker who has agreed to exclude it. The effect of the amendments is to replace detailed requirements imposed on the employer of workers who have agreed to exclude the limit with a requirement, reflecting terms which appear in the Directive, to keep up to date records of such workers.
Regulation 5 amends regulation 20 of the 1998 Regulations, under which workers whose working time is not measured or predetermined, or who can themselves determine the duration of their working time, are excepted from provisions of the Regulations relating to weekly working time, night work, rest periods and breaks. The amendment adds a further paragraph, applicable to cases where a worker’s working time is partly measured, predetermined or determined by the worker and partly not. In such cases, the provisions relating to weekly working time and night work will only apply in relation to that part of the worker’s work which is measured, predetermined or cannot be determined by the worker himself.
Regulation 6 inserts an additional regulation 34A in the 1998 regulations, requiring the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment to consult the two sides of industry and to publish information and advice enabling those affected by the 1998 Regulations to understand their respective rights and obligations under them.