Hi,

hopefully some of the folks from Aberdeen can help me out with this one.

My employer has issued me with some documents regarding the Working Time Regulations 1998. As this is my first job out of uni I have no previous experience with these regulations. My current understanding of them is that they state that an employee cannot be required to work more than 48 hours per week averaged over a 17-week reference period unless the employee has signed and agreed an individual opt out agreeing that the limit will not apply.

My job will occasionally involve some offshore work for site surveys and commissioning activities with the majourity of my time being spent onshore in the office.

My employer is inviting me to opt out of the above scheme; I do not know what would be best to do, and I'm hoping someone could point me in the right direction. Strangley enough, the engineering company I worked for whilst on placement at uni seemed to take the completely opposite stance and encouraged all employees NOT to opt out of the sheme.

What are the potential pitfalls of opting out of the scheme, or perhaps the pitfalls of not opting out of it?! If I didn't opt out of it, would it still be possible to perform offshore work (ie 12hour shifts for 14days straight), or would it limit the amount of offshore work I could perform on my employer's behalf, and hence render me useless to them in that respect.

With this being my first job, I don't particularly want to give the wrong impression which I feel might be the case if I choose not to opt out of the scheme.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Agar