Reply To: maximum allowable travel hours

If you did have an accident after those kind of hours, then I doubt if you would have a leg to stand on 😉

Actually (in the UK for example) the employer has duty of care to it’s employees under a working time directive 1998. Argue the toss about contractors v employees as much as you wish.. IMHO The courts would view anyone to be working as an employee and offer them the protection of the law in that respect.

In the UK.

Daily rest
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 10, a worker is entitled to a rest period of 11 consecutive hours rest in each 24 hour period during which he works for his employer.

There are ‘get out’ clauses such as change of shift etc. but in the case of an incident UK courts would also wish the employer to demonstrate that they are consciously doing their best to comply with the working time directive. If it can be demonstrated that they continuously ignore the directive then they’ll be in trouble!

So, I would suggest that if there was an accident attributed to tiredness and it was discovered that the company knowingly kept you on the go for as long as you mention then they would also be held liable.

As for maximum travel hours… I think it’s a grey area and only defined in company travel policy (if at all) and not legislated upon by HSE. HSE where? Would be my next question… UK? Thailand? Congo?

Now back to the real world.

1) Ask whom ever arranges your travel to include a break in your itinerary for the reasons you have stated. Send your concerns by email and keep the response, which might be along similar lines to the recent American Airways tweeted customer support response!

2) Keep a travel log (or at least all your tickets stubs as proof of travel) in case anything untoward happens.

3) Make too much noise and you’ll likely not get any travel information from that company in future, so it’ll no longer be an issue! Such is offshore/ROV style life. 🙄