Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations implement Council Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (O.J. No. L307, 13.12.93, p. 18) and provisions concerning working time in Council Directive 94/33/EC on the protection of young people at work (O.J. No. L216, 20.8.94, p. 12). The provisions in the latter Directive which are implemented relate only to adolescents (those who have not attained the age of 18 and are over compulsory school age). Provisions in that Directive relating to children have been implemented by or under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, S.I. 1995/755 (N.I. 2). Provisions implementing that Directive in relation to adolescents employed on ships are included in the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) (Employment of Young Persons) Regulations 1998, S.I. 1998/2411, and adolescents employed on ships are accordingly excluded from the scope of these Regulations (regulation 26).

Regulations 4 to 9 in these Regulations impose obligations on employers, enforceable by the Department of Economic Development and district councils; failure to comply is an offence. The obligations concern the maximum average weekly working time of workers (subject to provision for individual workers to agree that the maximum should not apply to them), the average normal hours of night workers, the provision of health assessments for night workers, and rest breaks to be given to workers engaged in certain kinds of work; employers are also required to keep records of workers' hours of work.

Regulations 10 to 17 confer rights on workers, enforceable by proceedings before industrial tribunals. The rights are to a rest period in every 24 hours during which a worker works for his employer and longer rest periods each week or fortnight, to a rest break in the course of a working day, and to a period of paid annual leave.

Regulations 18 to 27 provide for particular regulations not to apply, either in relation to workers engaged in certain kinds of work or where particular circumstances arise. There is also provision for groups of workers and their employers to agree to modify or exclude the application of particular regulations.

The remaining regulations make provision in relation to enforcement and remedies, and in respect of agency workers, Crown servants, the police, trainees and agricultural workers. The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 is amended to include a right for workers not to be subjected to any detriment for refusing to comply with a requirement contrary to these Regulations or to forgo a right conferred by them, and to provide that the dismissal of an employee on account of any such refusal is unfair dismissal for the purposes of that Order.