The Working Time Directive: Officer Health and Safety and Police Efficiency

Hereinafter referred to as the Directive or the WTD.

Article 118a.

Within the stated objectives of Council Directive 93/104/EC.

SI 1833, hereinafter referred to as the WTR or the UK Regulations.

By virtue of the WTD 93/104/EC art.1(3) which refers to Council Directive 89/391/EEC for purposes of defining its scope and art.2 of 89/391 states that the Directive's provisions will not apply where characteristics peculiar to certain specific service activities in a member state conflict with the Directive, and the police is one such named service activity, art.2(2).

Directive 89/391/EEC art.2 (2), UK WTR, reg.18(c).

WTD art.17 — the derogations, WTR regs.20 and 21.

WTD art.17(2), WTR, reg. 24.

In art. 17(2)

WTD art.17(2) and it is clearly in the Framework Directive 89/391/EEC that there be consultation and a balanced participation of workers, art.11.

Article 2(2) Directive 89/391/EEC.

We can see a clear intention to include police operations as “work” and officers as “employees” for purposes of health and safety; see Police (Health and Safety) Act 1997 post, in particular s. 51.

WTD art.6, UK WTR reg.4.

Although the Police (Health and Safety) Act 1998, defines the employer's duties as only falling within the period of the time an Officer is on duty and this is likely to include issues of health and safety linked to working time.

Article 7, WTR reg.13.

As is required under the Directive, arts.17(4) and 18(1).

Defined as any period of not less than seven hours and which must include the period between midnight and 5am WTD art.2(3), WTR reg.2.

WTD art.2(4), WTR reg.2.

Article 9, WTR reg.7.

See the recent case of Dyer reported in The Times October 27, 1998 and earlier cases such as, Wilsons and Clyde Coal and Steel Co Ltd v. English [1938] AC 57, HL.

The WTD and Framework Directive in particular only allow derogation's in certain sectors to the extent needed to recognize their unique characteristics, and the recent Police (Health and Safety) Act 1997 which extends the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 to the police, identifies officers as “employees” and “relevant police officers” as employers, see post. Also under EC law the equal treatment Directives, eg, Directive 76/207 and sex and racial discrimination.

See amongst others, Johnstone v. Bloomsbury Health Authority [1991] IRLR 118, and Walker v. Northumberland County Council [1995] IRLR 35 post. Also Moretz, P. (1987) “The Design of Shift Systems. Ergonomics” 49(10), 54–57; Scott A.J. and Ladou J. (1990) “Shiftwork: Effects on sleep and health with recommendations for medical surveillance and screening”; Scott A.J. (Ed.) Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews — Shiftwork (Vol. 5, No. 2) Philadelphia, Hanley and Belfus; Waterhouse J. Folkard S. , and Minors D. (1992) Shiftwork, Health and Safety, An Overview of the Scientific Literature 1978 to 1990, London: HMSO.

McLoughlin v. O'Brian and others [1983] AC 410.

Galt v. Britsih Railways Board [1983] 133 NLJ 870.

See Knauth P. (1993) “The Design of Shift Systems. Ergonomics” 36(1–3), 15–28, and Moretz S. and Waterhouse J. Folkard S. and Minors D. op. cit. n.22.

The WTD makes particular reference to ‘long periods of night work (that) can be detrimental to the health of workers and can endanger safety at the workplace’, statement of objectives 9 para. six.

Article 9(1)(b) of the Directive, reg. 7(6) of the WTR. In Merseyside Police there is already one police officer in his fifties who has requested a move from night duties because of the effect on his health.

McLouglin v. O'Brian ante and more recently, Alcock v. Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 AC 310, Hillsborough, but see Frost & Others v. Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police and others (1998) The Times, December 4, HL.

Articles 3,4,5,6,7,8 and 13 of the WTD.

Directive 89/391 art.14.

WTD, art.12.

Paris v. Stepney Borough Council [1951] AC 367, HL.

WTD, art.12.

Labelled under the Act as a, “relevant officer”, s. 1, which inserts s.51A into the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. For officers working for the Criminal Intelligence Service and National Crime Squad, a “relevant officer” is the Director General, s.51A(2)(b).

Section 52(bb).

Article 5(4); contained in reg.21(e) of the WTR. Although the UK Regulations add a third category of exclusion where, the “worker's activities are affected by an accident or the imminent risk of an accident” this is a strange addition given the fact that there is a potential employer liability for accidents where they are foreseeable.

Regulation 21(e).

Bolton v. Stone [1951] AC 850.

Section 2.

Section 44.

This implements art.7(2) of Directive 89/391.

The Police Federation for England and Wales.

Contained in the Consultation with Employees Regulations 1996, which came into force for UK employers on October 1, 1996, now, through the Police Act 1997, applying also to the police.

Articles 7 and 10(1).

Article 11(1) of 89/391.

Ibid. art.11.

Sections 44, 48 and 49 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Section 134A of the Police Act 1997, extending s. 100 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Ibid. art.13.

Ibid.

See the work of Knauth P. (1993) ‘The Design of Shift Systems’, op. cit. n. 20.

Monk T. and Folkard S. (1992) Making Shiftwork Tolerable, Taylor and Francis (1992): Smith L. and Barton J. (1995) “Shiftwork and Personal Control”, European Work & Organizational Psychologist 4(2), 101–120.

Tucker P. (1996) “Comparison of 8 and 12 Hour Shifts: Impact on Health, Well-being and Alertness During the Shift”, Occupational & Environmental Medicine 53, 767–772.