Work Life Balance

This legislation considers time worked as well as rest breaks and leave entitlements.

It creates a maximum limit on the number of hours which can be worked within a week (which can be opted out of). The limit is an average of 48 hours in each seven-day period.

An entitlement to annual leave was also defined as being four weeks (after 13 weeks of service). Importantly the start and end of the leave year is also defined, either as being that agreed to in their contract or if not defined there then the anniversary of their employment date or 1st October where the employment began on or before 1st October 1998. This leave entitlement must be taken in the specified leave year and can not be replaced by payments in lieu.