Posted By water67. Hi all, my problem/dilemma, I have recently taken over responsibility for a department. A section of the workforce are on call (they may be able to deal with the issue on the telephone or have to go out on site at any given time) from 10.00 p.m. until 8.00 a.m. the next morning they are also additionally on call for 12 – 14 hours per day and night over the week end on sat and sun thus doing the on call for 7 straight nights, in addition they come into work for a 9.00 a.m start 5.00 p.m. finish Monday to Friday. They do this on a rota 1 week in 4. The call out means they have to drive out to various sites across a region/area of around 50 square miles. In some instances particularly on weekends they can be out most of the night. Obviously a number of concerns not least driving whilst very tired. There is also an issue of potential violence My problem senior managers and the head of HR (I thought from his perspective this would at least be a breach of the working time directive), are aware of this, it has been practice for a number of years and they are basically turning a blind eye to the issues. So to my problem I feel I need to highlight the issues and concerns on my audits. But it is clear that this won’t be viewed as a “good” thing. If I don’t highlight the issues, apart from my obvious concern about the exposure of these workers to risks, I feel it reflects poorly on my professional integrity. any advice?

Posted By Mitch Also try and temper your audit with constructive suggestions on how to improve the situation, speak to the employees and get their opinions, split shifts etc

Posted By Andy Brazier Good advice so. However, from the description you provided I can't see there is anything particularly wrong, but that may just be my interpretation. For example, working long hours for 1 week in 4 will probably not be a problem with the working time regulations. It might be better if you provide us a couple of scenarios where you think someone on call is experiencing intolerable risk and your proposed solution. We could then comment on whether we agree with your assessment and/or solution.

Posted By CW Report what you find.

Posted By water67. Hi, Thanks for the responses i have considered most of the views suggested and also had informal chats with managers. I will, as I always feel I should do, raise my concerns in my report. Having an engineering background also always try to have a solution based approach. As ever H&S staff have to put themselves in the firing line. even in cases where others should at least attempt to raise issues. Cheers