Results of inspections related to working time of drivers

Insufficient level of employment as the major cause of irregularities

Observance of working time regulations, especially with regard to drivers employed in transport companies, was one of the subjects during the Labour Protection Council’s plenary session chaired by MP Izabela Katarzyna Mrzygłocka and held in Parliament on 21 October 2008. The problem from the point of view of the Labour Inspectorate was presented by Tadeusz Jan Zając, Chief Labour Inspector and his deputy Anna Tomczyk.

The basic cause of irregularities identified by labour inspectors in the area of compliance with provisions on working time, according to Chief Labour Inspector Tadeusz Jan Zając, is an insufficient number of employed workers. He emphasised that protective function of working time norms consists, first of all, in ban on keeping employees at the employer’s disposal for too long. However, due to a significant amount of work and insufficient human resources, employed workers perform work in excess of permissible working time norms, as well as on Sundays and holidays. Therefore, it is vital for the National Labour Inspectorate to be actively and consistently involved in improving compliance with the law in this area. Indispensable measures include broad preventative actions, training meetings or seminars which offer employers knowledge of the methods of proper management of available working time. It is particularly important in sectors, such as transport, in which too long working days can create hazards to human life or health.

Deputy Chief Labour Inspector Anna Tomczyk informed the Council the that the most irregularities related to observance of working time provisions are identified by labour inspectors among employers engaging from 1 to 9 persons, mainly in retail trade, repair and manufacturing. The smallest number of faults exists in large companies with more than 250 employees. The most frequent infringements of working time provisions are related to incorrect specification of provisions in collective labour agreements and workplace regulations, mistakes connected with work systems and schedules as well as adopted settlement periods. One of irregularities is employment of workers in breach of provisions on the minimum daily and weekly rest periods.

There was an increase in the number of cases when workers were not ensured at least 11-hour uninterrupted daily rest and at least 35-hour weekly rest periods.

Faults of non-granting uninterrupted daily and weekly rest period are, first and foremost, connected with planning too long working days, shortening of rest by ordering workers to be on duty for too long or to work overtime. Inspection activities indicate a large number of employers in whose companies daily and average weekly norms of working time are exceeded. In practice, as employers themselves often emphasise, during settlement periods amount of work is so huge that workers are commissioned additional work so as to ensure completion of undertaken tasks.

Results of conducted inspections also allow one to conclude that there is a rise in the number of irregularities related to employing workers in excess of the permissible number of overtime hours. At the same time one has to remember that such employment is acceptable but must be compensated with a day off work on some other date. Yet, it does not take place in over half of inspected cases.

On the other hand, a falling tendency in the number of irregularities related to employers’ failure to keep working time records has been noticeable recently. Similarly, the number of identified irregularities in the area of wrongly kept working time records has been continually falling.

The assessment of compliance with labour law provisions in transport companies has been a regular component of the National Labour Inspectorate’s inspection and supervisory activity for several years. Labour inspectors carry out comprehensive visits covering both the issues of law-observance in labour relations, and work safety and health. Yet, particular emphasis is placed on compliance with working time provisions due to direct influence of such regulations on human life and health.

The largest number of irregularities was recorded by labour inspectors in the area of unreliable keeping of working time records. They most frequently consisted in the employer’s failure to confirm the actual number of hours of work, and in particular, to record overtime work.

Inspections also showed irregularities in the area of employing workers in breach of provisions on the minimum daily rest periods. Significantly lower was the number of faults related to failure to ensure minimum weekly rest periods to workers.

Irregularities connected with breaches of working time provisions in the transport sector are most frequently caused by ignorance of provisions or the number of commissioned tasks which are impossible to complete within the limits of commonly binding working time norms. In a great many cases employers do not differentiate the two notions of: time of work and time of driving a vehicle. In the employers’ opinion only the time of driving is the time of work. So, they treat stops, routine maintenance of vehicles and statutory breaks at work as drivers’ free time and they do not include such activities in their working time, which is contrary to regulations.