GRcade

Hello all,

I'll try to keep this brief.

My wife is a vet in the UK. Seven times a year each veterinary surgeons are required to do a week of nights. This in itself is not the problem, the problem is how they lead into this week of nights.

Last week (Monday-Friday) she worked a 50-55 hour week which is nowhere near out of the ordinary. She finished at 6.30pm on Friday night and was then immediately on-call.. She got calls throughout the night, never getting more than an hours or twos sleep.

On Saturday the practice is open from 9am until 3pm, and as the on-call vet, she is required to be there throughout. Once they closed at 3pm she was once again on-call and was out and about till 6pm. I made her dinner, and she was back out by 6.30pm and didn't get home till midnight.

She got a grand total of 4 hours sleep last night because of client calls, and she has been out again today from 7am until 3pm. She just tried to go to sleep, and got called out again.

To summarise: Due to client calls she has had about 5 hours sleep since Friday morning, and she is required to be driving to and from these calls at all times. For the first time (after seeing the state she is in) I have started to worry about her becoming tired at the wheel and being involved in an accident. As such, I am seeking advice on if this is legal in the UK.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

TL;DR: My wife is a Vet, and works obscene hours when she is on-call. It may be starting to affect her concentration on the roads. Is this legal in the UK, and do if I have the right to approach her employers and put in a formal complaint.

Well when I do call out at work (my normal shift is 8-5 mon-fri) if I get called out after midnight the hours I'm out I will take add on to the 8am start unless over the weekend. There is a law or something that states you require so much rest time between working shifts.

This should help.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/employment/ ... g_10029451

Cheers for that link, I was completely oblivious to the 48hr limit per week. I'll have to see if there is a copy of her contract kicking about the flat.

It does sound a bit fishy/dangerous then, it's not just me?

You can opt-out of the working time limits I believe, but you usually need to sign something to that effect.
Even then, I think there's a legal requirement for at least 10-11 hours between shifts. Of course I suppose the 'on-call' part is basically a loophole in that since technically she's not on a shift, she's just 'on-call' which it sounds is a shift in all but name.

It might be worth a call to ACAS and see what they can recommend.

My other half is a Veterinary Nurse, she read that and said that's just how it works, it sucks but its part of the job.

It'll be dependent on her contract.

I'm sure you can "waver" the rest break allowance.