Recent Legislation and Events

Transport:

The Working Time Directive:

The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005, which implement the Road Transport (Working Time) Directive - 2002/15/EC, came into force on 4th April 2005. The rules apply to commercial drivers and crews of Large Goods Vehicles, the self-employed and Public Service Vehicles in the UK.

The main provisions of the new Regulations are:

• weekly working time is limited to an average of 48 hours (normally calculated over a four-month reference period);
• a maximum of 60 hours work can be performed in a single week, so long as the average 48-hour limit is maintained;
• night workers are restricted to 10 hours working time in any 24-hour period;
• requirements relating to breaks that workers must be allowed.

Additionally, where there is either a collective agreement or a workforce agreement at company level between the employer and employees, companies will be able to use the derogations available under the Directive:-

• the 4-month reference period for calculating the average 48-hour week can be extended to 6 months;
• the 10-hour limit (over a 24-hour period) for night workers can be exceeded, although the 60-hour weekly limit will still apply, and drivers will still have to respect the EU drivers' hours rules.

The definition of 'night time' is a period between 00.00-04.00 for drivers and crew of goods vehicles, and 01.00-05.00 for drivers and crew of passenger vehicles, workers who occasionally perform road transport activities will be subject to the Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended) rather than these Regulations. The Regulations will be enforced in the UK by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) whose response will be "proportionate", with an onus on educating employers and workers.

Waste:

The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 (amended 2009):

The UK's old Special Waste regulations were swept away on 16th July 2005. The new Hazardous Waste Regulations bring about dramatic changes for both waste producers and companies disposing of the waste.

In addition several items have now been reclassified as Hazardous Waste, potentially catching out companies who currently handle them. They are:

• Refrigerators and freezers containing CFC's in their cooling system, or as a blowing agent in their foam insulation.
• Computer equipment. (It is estimated that by now, over 1.5million PC's have been landfilled in the UK)*
• Fluorescent light tubes. (80million are landfilled in the UK annually)*

^{* Source: The Environment Agency, 2003}