Confusion over the 11 hour rest period between shifts when travelling is part of job

[zac1972]

My husband started a new job in April this year - he is employed on full time contract and signed the 48hr week disclaimer so he can work over 48hrs a week. It involves a lot of travelling to sites around the country, and often means he leaves the house at 4am to get to site by 8am (the time his boss tells his clients that his employee will be on site) some days he doesn't get back home until 8pm and sometimes a lot later than that if there has been delays on the motorways etc. On a day like this, he would still be expected by his boss to be on site by 8am again the next day, so some days he may walk in at 8pm, and be up the next morning by 3am and back out the door at 4am, when this happens for say 3 days on the run, he understandably tired and I do worry about him driving whilst tired, he is sensible and will stop for a coffee if he feels tired, but I am convinced that he is not having the rest periods between shifts that he should be by law, do these rest periods also apply to travel time between sites and base of employment? My husband doesn't want to make a fuss about this, but I feel with his 6 month review this week he could mention it quite easily. This is the first time his boss has had an employee so maybe he just doesn't realise the laws around it.

He's also very poor with communication around planning and automatically books nights away abroad for my husband without checking the dates with him first to see if he has anything planned at home. He has had to be away for kids birthdays and other events without any choice overnight, and although I know this is part of his job and should be expected, is there any rules around booking these without checking with the employee first, he only gets the minimum holiday allowance and at the moment feels like his only option is to book annual leave for special dates so that he can guarantee he is home that night for a meal or just to visit someone such as his Mum on her birthday. On a positive note he is loving his actual job, I just don't want him to be taken advantage of so with the opportunity to bring all this up this week, its worth knowing any laws around it all.

Many thanks for any advice

[ULA]

In September 2015 the European Court of Justice ruled that for mobile workers who do not have a fixed or habitual place of work, the time spent travelling each day between their homes and the premises of the first and last customers designated by their employer constitutes working time within the meaning of the Working Time Directive. So if your husband is considered to be a mobile worker then he should have an 11- hour rest period before starting work the next day from when he arrives home in the evening.

With regard to booking nights away there is no legal requirement that your husband’s employer should check in advance. However, I would suggest that your husband does just ask his employer whether in future it would be possible to check to ensure that business trips do not clash with evening personal arrangements. It just means that there is then the opportunity to see if the business trip dates can be changed in the event a night away clashes with a personal event and if not then at least your husband has time to re-plan his arrangements.