A worker may agree in writing to opt out of the 48-hour average limit. The opt-out should ideally not be contained in the employment contract itself, but in a separate letter or agreement. Although an opt-out in an employment contract is legally valid, the European Commission is concerned about abuse, and would like to put a stop to this.
Employers must keep up-to-date records of all opted-out workers. In practice this means that employers simply need to keep a copy of all opt-out letters or a current list of opted-out workers in a secure file.
Young workers (those under the age of 18 years) cannot work more than 40 hours in any week, and cannot sign an opt-out agreement.
Workers cannot opt out of night work limits and this sort of letter is not appropriate for certain mobile workers in road, air or sea transport, who are covered by separate regulations.
Following the UK's decision to leave the EU (Brexit), there will be a legislative review process to determine which elements of the Working Time Regulations, if any, should be retained. It is possible that the maximum limit on weekly working time will be removed altogether following Brexit. We are still awaiting the government’s position on this.