Union threaten action over working time

Members of broadcasting union BECTU and journalists' union the NUJ are to take industrial action this month over the introduction of night working at TV news company ITN. The move would significantly increase anti-social hours and night working for all ITN staff employed after October 1990.

BECTU reports that rosters issued to staff for January 2000 confirm the damaging effects of new contracts ITN has threatened to impose. It says that a survey of its members found that there are serious concerns about increased stress levels caused by having to work on more days and the damaging effect on home life.

Junior doctors have also threatened to ballot to strike over excessive hours. One in four still works more than the 56 hours a week in a deal negotiated last year. Junior doctors, along with transport workers and those working at sea, are excluded from the 1998 Working Time Regulations, which sets a 48-hour maximum working week. However, MEPs have called for negotiations with national governments in order to extend the Working Time Directive, from which the UK Regulations stem, to these areas.

A survey by catering company, Eurest, which runs staff canteens, found that only one in three people take more than half an hour for lunch.