UK Universities & the EU’s Largest White-Collar Employment Law Violation
If you are a UK academic or administrator (grade 6+), your are likely implicated as either a victim or a perpetrator…
This micro-explainer outlines why the vast majority of UK Universities are likely in criminal violation of the UK Working Time Regulations 1998; therefore, how some 100,000 plus, UK white-collar workers, are illegally denied a protected maximum working week. It draws on a full paper elsewhere and draws on both first hand research and professional legal opinion, including that funded by the University College Union.
These are significant findings given the increasing evidence that overwork in Higher Education lowers standards, and results in physical and mental illness for those working at the forefront of Britain’s vital knowledge economy.
The Law
Every single UK employee is entitled to a maximum working week of 48 hours. Every single employer has the legal obligation to ensure this maximum is not breached (ACAS 2023). This is by fortune of the UK’s previous membership of the EU.
There are legitimate exceptions to this universal Health and Safty protection. One is for “autonomous” employees who self direct their time in duration and scheduling; these workers are therefore considered to have “unmeasured working time”. Such employees don’t need legal protection from overwork because they have “total control” of the duration and scheduling of duties. It would therefore be unreasonable to expect employers to monitor and enforce a maximum working week, in the case of, for example, a “managing director” who has such total control of their working hours.
Criminal UK University Violations
Almost every UK University has behaved criminally in their interpretation and application of the above foundational laws. They have used the flexibility available to academic and senior administrative staff (1) — usually grades 6 and upwards — to define them as “autonomous”, and therefore avoid the legislation on restricted working time and employer responsibility.
You can read a further in-depth Medium article about the case law that underpins the appropiate interpretation. This also shows why illegality likely exists across the EU.
However, in summary, the UK Health and Safety Executive — the Government’s enforcement organisation — provides an entirely unproblematic summary of relevant jurisprudence, in the statement that the “autonomous worker exception”…
“…applies to workers who have complete control over the hours they work and whose time is not monitored or determined by their employer” (HSE No Date).
University managers have a legal obligation to compare the expectations of the legislation and its official interpretation with the empirical reality of academic and administrative roles.
If they were to do this, it’s instantly evident that workers currently denied legal protection under the claim they are “autonomous” do not satisfy the readily available definition because their roles include work that is extensively directed by the employer.
Some examples of the characteristics that management and employees should use to judge if full autonomy exists, or not, include the requirement to engage with management imposed:
- Timetable teaching sessions such as lectures and seminars
- Administrative meetings including mandatory exam boards
- Marking and assessment, where feedback must be provided within management specified turn-around periods
- Annual leave procedures that require so-called autonomous staff to request permission for days off, and restrict these opportunities often to narrow parts of the academic year
The list of tasks and activities over which university management continually specifies scheduling and duration goes on and on. Indeed, it is frankly idiotic to believe universities could operate effectively where all academic and senior academic related staff did the duties allocated, when and for how long they personally thought appropriate. The University would collapse in hours!
The key point is that jurisprudence makes it unequivocally clear: the question for a judge is not about the degree of flexibility, but if an employee has total autonomy or not. UK University management, and the collective University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) — that has actively promoted the current interpretation — therefore have no reasonable possibility to successfully defend their position where it is challenged.
Moreover, while the vast majority of UK Universities have adopted the same practices — definable as criminal since 2008 — others have exhibited independent thought in reading and applying the law. A number of universities use Terms and Conditions of employment that are either entirely, or in some cases at least much more, compliant with the law.
Learning More
Please explore my other work on this issue via the links below, follow me and contribute responses and /or questions to learn more about this issue. The legal foundation of working time should now be central to everyone’s interest given intensifying Industrial Action on working conditions.
Further Reading
My full research and analysis piece:
My meso-explainer that covers more of technical legal issues:
Notes
(1) Administrative Staff are often refereed to as “Professional Service” or “Academic Related” university employees.
