The Legislative Decree 234/2007 aims to ensure adequate working conditions for mobile workers, recognizing the specificities and risks related to transport activities carried out during night hours, with precise definitions and limits that are distinct from the general regulations.
The Decree implements the European directive on the organization of working hours in the transport (mobile workers) and precisely defines the concept of night work.
Here are the key points to correctly define night work:
- Night work: any performance carried out during the night;
- Night: a period of at least four consecutive hours between the hours 00:00 and 7:00;
- Night worker: It is the worker who performs a work performance during the "night period":
- if night work is performed, the daily working hours must not exceed ten hours for each twenty-four hour period
In summary, if the condition of night work occurs in the transport sector, that is when the mobile worker performs at least four consecutive hours work between midnight and seven in the morning, specific consequences provided by D.Lgs. 234/2007 are activated.
If night work is triggered, is it therefore allowed to utilize all 13 hours of commitment or 15 hours if available, or is the driver forced to stop after 10 hours from my first activity?
To answer this question, the term must be defined Work for D.Lgs 234/07 and the term Commitment.
It is defined as working hours any period between the start and end of work during which the mobile worker is at the workplace, available to the employer and performs their functions or activities, that is: the time dedicated to all operations of road transport. In particular, these operations include: driving, loading and unloading, the supervision of the boarding or disembarking of passengers from the vehicle, the cleaning and technical maintenance of the vehicle, any other operation aimed at ensuring the safety of the vehicle and the load and the passengers or fulfilling the legal or regulatory obligations directly related to the specific transport in progress, including the supervision of loading and unloading operations, the administrative formalities of police, customs, and the periods of time during which the mobile worker cannot freely dispose of their time.
Periods of interruption from driving, intermediate rests, and availability times are excluded from the calculation of working hours.
The concept of "commitment time" is a term used in common and practical jargon to identify the total duration of the working day of a driver, that is the time span between the first activity after a valid rest and the start of the subsequent daily or weekly rest period.
The working time is calculated
by summing only the driving activities and other activities (hammers). Not
included in the count are the rest and availability.
We can therefore confidently answer the previous question stating that, even in the case where the driver triggers the Night Work condition by working consecutively (driving+hammers) for 4 hours, it is allowed to utilize all 13 hours of commitment or 15 if available, while being careful that the Working time, that is the sum of all driving blocks and the times of other recorded activities contained in my commitment, does not exceed 10 hours.