Your working week

[PDD]

Having spent the past while working in education I am begining to get a little fed up and am seriously thinking about making the jump back to the 'real world!'.

 

What I was wondering was what is generally accepted as the average working week? As you can imagine at the moment im used to cushy 9-5 and long holidays in the summer!

 

As I also work in education, I thought I'd add my hours into the mix. Any way I look at it, to give up the school holidays would be a major loss, and is currently the reason I have no plans to go back to 'normal' theatre work.

 

Most of the time I work roughly 9 to 5 or 6, with a hour for lunch, Mon-Fri, making 8 hours a day or 40 days a week (I'm contracted for a minimum of 40 hours per week). I'm also contracturally only entitled to 1 day off per week, but mostly I get full weekends off. However, during productions and for occassional evening events, it's more like 9AM to 10PM, which soon adds up to 60-72+ hours a week. That is all balanced with roughly 17 weeks paid holiday, hence I would imagine my averages come under the WTD. Not sure, but it's not to be sniffed at. Having said that, I know a fair proportion of the STSG members (school technicians and managers) are obliged to work through holiday times as well.

 

So, having read the other posts here, I think hours in education are average, if not better in some cases, plus you get the benefit of school holidays if you're lucky. I'd be interested to hear from someone here on a BECTU contract to see how that compares.

[adrenalinjunkie]

Right here we are the clause in my contract:

'Special Conditions:

This contract is subject to an agreement to opt out of the working time regulations, in effect, an agreement to work over 48 hours on average for the period of the tourif this proves necessary. ***** National ***** only offers freelance technical contracts to staff willing to sign and abide by the opt out provisions of the working time regulations.'

 

Not that I mind particularly. its long hours but they treat us pretty well etc.

[Bryson]

I quote from the DTI website, italics mine:

An individual worker may agree to work more than 48 hours a week. If so, he or she should sign an opt-out agreement, which they can cancel at any time. The employer and worker can agree how much notice is needed to cancel the agreement, which can be up to three months. In the absence of an agreed notice period, the worker needs to give a minimum of seven days' notice of cancellation. 

 

 

Employers cannot force a worker to sign an opt-out. Any opt-out must be agreed to. Workers cannot be fairly dismissed or subjected to detriment for refusing to sign an opt-out.

 

 

Employers must keep a record of who has agreed to work longer hours.

 

I also quote from the BECTU website:

 

We believe, therefore, on the basis of the evidence provided, that the opt-out is being routinely abused in this sector. The original intention of this provision - that individuals could choose whether or not to exercise their right to opt-out - is not being fulfilled. Instead, the opt-out has become a matter of widespread compulsion - based on the imbalance of power in the employment relationship and to the detriment of the individual freelances involved.

 

I think it's reasonably clear that your employer does not have the right to require this part of your contract by law. Whether or not they have the "power" to do so is, of course, another issue.