| What are annual hours?
Get the facts on a new way of working. Could it be time for a change? Instead of thinking of your work as so many hours per week, annual hours means you think of it as so many hours per year. So, for example, a 37.5-hour week, over a year that includes four weeks of holiday and 1.6 weeks’ worth of bank holidays, turns into a 1,740-hour year. What usually happens is that you agree with your employer that you will work a number of ‘committed hours’. This leaves a stack of ‘reserve hours’. Your employer can then ask you to work beyond your 'committed hours’ to use up your ‘reserve hours’. Tesco Stores, for example, finds that this system helps everyone to cope with variations in volumes of goods in its distribution departments. If you are thinking of entering into an annual hours scheme, think carefully about how much notice you will get that you are expected to work ‘reserve hours’? Some agreements ask you to work extra hours at very short notice. This may suit you if you have few commitments outside of work. But if you have a young family, for example, it may be difficult for you to reorganise your childcare arrangements at short notice. With the growth of the service industries and round-the-clock customer-oriented businesses, such as call centres, annual hours schemes are becoming more attractive. You may want to take advantage of the flexibility they offer: to work more at certain times of year and less at others; or to vary the length of your working day; or to change the number of days you work every week. Further information
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