Inspectors Hours

Thames Valley Police recognises that many Inspectors and Chief Inspectors work in excess of a 40 hour week. The force allows for hours worked in excess of this amount to be used at a later date to maintain a work/life balance (Managed time on DMS). Officers should only work beyond their duty finish time if there is an operational need to do so. Hours worked should be recorded accurately and not merely on and off DMS at the times shown, this equally applies to a shortened tour of duty.

Excess hours should be used as soon as practicable.  Managed Time (MT) is not TOIL and inspectors should not accumulate MT and assume that they may take whole days or blocks of days off. Managed Time is designed to ensure that inspecting ranks comply with Working Time Regulations and do not exceed the 48 hours per week average over a rolling 20 week period.

Working hours for Inspecting ranks

The Workforce Agreement does not award compensation for excessive hours worked as there is no provision under Police Regulations 2003 for the Chief Constable to be able to do this. Instead it seeks to ensure that there is compliance with the Working Time Regulations 1998, which in themselves are concerned with ensuring workers have a healthy work/life balance.

Section A12 Managed Time is the relevant section of the Abstraction and Annual Leave Policy.

Find the ‘Inspectors Managed Time.docx’ document in the ‘Downloads’ side bar section.

The principal features of the agreement are:

• The normal working week will be 40 hours including meal breaks.  Inspectors and Chief Inspectors will only work such additional hours as may from time to time be reasonable and necessary for the effective performance of their duties.
• There is no automatic financial compensation for additional hours worked under Police Regulations 2003; however, in some circumstances the Bonus Payment policy may be applicable.
• Insps and C/Insp are expected to take responsibility for managing their working hours and should take managed time around operational demands if additional hours are worked.
• Any Inspector or Chief Inspector who works on a rostered rest day or public holiday is allocated an additional days leave, as per Police Regulations.
• Any additional leave days in lieu of rest days or public holidays worked should be taken as soon as possible to allow suitable rest periods. If this is not possible days must be taken within 12 months of working them (except any worked between April 2005 and August 2008 which must be taken as soon as is practicable. Any rest days worked prior to April 2005 are not part of this agreement). Any not taken within the 12 month period will be removed from the system and no longer be available for reallocation.
• Any Insp or C/Insp who is required to work by the organisation on a rostered rest day (this includes RDIL) or public holiday is allocated an additional days leave, as per Police Regulations. The requirement to work must come from either the relevant line manager or from the Resource Management Department and should be clear there is an organisational need which no working individual can cover.
• Where an Inspector or Chief Inspector is re-called to duty from a period of annual leave, they will be compensated in line with Police regulations.
• Where an Inspector’s or Chief Inspector’s averaged weekly hours exceed the trigger point under the Working Time Regulations 1998 he/she will be required to take rest until the hours fall below the allowed maximum.
• The trigger point under the Working Time Regulations 1998 is 48 hours per week averaged over the rolling reference period of 20 weeks. Within Thames Valley Police, line managers will be prepared to take action when i) over 47 hours are worked in any week and/or ii) over a rolling reference period of 17 weeks, the average working week has reached 47 hours.
• Officers are encouraged to restrict their hours to below the 47 hour averaged maximum
• Monitoring of Inspectors’ and Chief Inspectors’ hours to ensure compliance with the Working Time Regulations 1998 is the responsibility of line management.
• Individuals can ‘opt out’ of this section of the Working Time Regulations, but managers are reminded that they still have a duty of care under Health and Safety legislation towards individuals in respect of hours worked.

Procedures

1. Inspectors/Chief Inspectors must record their hours worked on DMS Origin or PIPKINS.
2. Areas/Departments need to ensure that they have in place procedures for the hours of work to be monitored by nominated staff.
3. Working time, which will in normal circumstances, be 40 hours per week, shall not exceed an average of 47 hours for each seven days over the relevant period, which for Thames Valley Police is a rolling 17 weeks period.
4. Line managers shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the limits specified in Paragraph 3 above are complied with in the case of each member of staff to whom it applies.
5. Officers can elect to ‘opt out’ of WTR by signing a declaration. Line Managers must be aware, however, that the existence of an ‘opt out’ agreement does not remove their duty of care or liability under Health and Safety at work legislation nor does it remove the requirement to record hours of work.
6. The rolling seventeen weeks are working weeks. If an officer has sick leave, maternity leave or annual leave within the period, then the equivalent number of days worked from the next period must be counted to determine averaged hours.
7. Where an officer who has not ‘opted out’ has exceeded the averaged 47 hours, his/her line manager shall immediately award rest periods, subject to the exigencies of duty and in any case within 3 days, of sufficient length to prevent a breach of the regulations. These rest periods can be several shifts of reduced hours or a single rostered shift of excused duty.
8. Officers must be granted either one day in seven or two days in a fourteen day period which is deemed a rest day and on which they are completely free from work demands.
9. Officers who are on call on a rest day must attend work for part of that day and will be compensated with a rest day in lieu as below.
10. Under the Police Regulations 2003, if an Inspector/Chief Inspector is required to work a rostered rest day or public holiday, he/she is entitled to an additional leave day as compensation. This day’s leave must be taken within the 12 months following the requirement to work. In exceptional circumstances, the officer may be prevented by exigencies of duty from taking it within 12 months. If this is the case the officer must submit a report to the Head of Resource Management for authority to retain the rest day in lieu beyond the 12 month period.

The above procedures are general guidelines and are not a definitive account of all of the requirements of the Working Time Regulations or Police Regulations 2003. The full regulations are available via the Force Intranet under the Polices and Procedures section and on the Police Federation website.