I disagree with Buster2000's assertions above, but there's no point continuing to go back and forth - ultimately we're not judges and it'll depend on the individual situation.

Still, the fact remains that arguably most UK studios will ask you to opt-out of a 48hr limit, and that there is a strong implication that it is a job requirement. I imagine the advancement prospects of anybody who is regularly going home at 6pm when colleagues are staying to 9 are likely to be poor, anyway.

Yes, employees should attempt to defend their own rights, but it's not always feasible. Frob says one resolution is "by finding a different employer" and I am just warning potential juniors that it might have to be outside of the games industry, if you're in the UK and a few months of averaging 50hr weeks towards the end of a project - often with no prospect of ever getting those hours back as time off or as payment - is a deal-breaker.

The other point in the EU is that the same laws require 11 hours of unbroken rest between shifts, once every 24 hours. There are exemptions for specific roles (hospitals, police, etc.) and time spent on call doesn't count unless you are called in, but if they keep you until midnight, coming into work before 11am is a breach of health and safety law; you (the employee) would be liable, a company asking you to do so would be in breach of H&S law the same way a building site not supplying a hard-hat would be.

In the UK, it's worth noting that BECTU is the union for technical work in the entertainment industry (whether you are a lighting technician in a theatre or a software engineer in games) and their lawyers are very good. If in doubt, contact BECTU and (from memory) they don't even mind if you are signing up just to get legal help.

I disagree with Buster2000's assertions above, but there's no point continuing to go back and forth - ultimately we're not judges and it'll depend on the individual situation.

Still, the fact remains that arguably most UK studios will ask you to opt-out of a 48hr limit, and that there is a strong implication that it is a job requirement. I imagine the advancement prospects of anybody who is regularly going home at 6pm when colleagues are staying to 9 are likely to be poor, anyway.

Yes, employees should attempt to defend their own rights, but it's not always feasible. Frob says one resolution is "by finding a different employer" and I am just warning potential juniors that it might have to be outside of the games industry, if you're in the UK and a few months of averaging 50hr weeks towards the end of a project - often with no prospect of ever getting those hours back as time off or as payment - is a deal-breaker.

What you are saying is true and I've seen exactly the same things myself. However things have changed / are changing. Even casual zero hours contract workers have been able to claim this kind of stuff thanks to the whole sports direct fiasco.

A junior programmer at a UK studio doing 50 hours a week for several months is very likely to be earning less than minimum wage. If you think you are earning minimum wage you can ask you manager to stump up the cash. If he / she refuses you can report them to Acas. If Acas finds out the company is regularly doing this then they will be fined and named and shamed in the national press.

Obviously if you are a senior on a good salary you are probably still earning more than minimum wage even when doing regular 50 hour weeks so in this case you just have to put up with it.

Again a lot of people in the games industry don't want to try enforcing their statutory right because as you said the industry in the UK is very small and everybody knows everybody else and there is always the risk of getting "Black Balled" but, the risk of doing this for managers and employers is getting greater and greater all the time.

doing 50 hours a week for several months is very likely to be earning less than minimum wage

This is one aspect many people never consider. It was my biggest argument against it back when I was young.

Always consider your actual rate.

If you're just starting out in the field a salary may be (as a convenient number) $60K/year, or $30/hour in a standard work year. But if companies are asking 50 hours per week instead of 40, you're now making $24/hour. Still above the US minimum wage, but it means they are effectively paying you less per hour.

If they were asking 60 hours per week (which is high) that same $60K/year becomes $20/hour. If it was 80 hours per week -- which is insane -- you're down to $15/hour.

Overtime rates vary by location. In California those are 1.5x for anything over 8 hours in a day between 40 hours up to 60 hours, and 2x for anything over 12 hours a day or over 60 total hours. So if you normally made $60K/year and were paid overtime under the hourly rules, at 60 hours in a week as 12-hour days the $60K/year job would effectively be $105K. If it were consistently 80 hour weeks it would effectively be $165K/year.

One of my brothers -- who is a member of a different trade and is part of their union -- was asked to work in another state temporarily due to an emergency situation. They offered him full costs of room and board and transportation, a sizeable bonus, and all the overtime hours billed in those same 1.5x and 2x rates that he was willing to work. Since he had nothing else to do he put in 16 hour days, 7 days a week, for nearly a month. That one month he brought in more than a full year's pay.

If your position is exempt from overtime, be extremely wary of putting in extra unpaid hours. It devalues you and your work, and bottom-line businessmen are quick to exploit workers who do it.

I am a salaried worker exempt from overtime rates. I will occasionally work a little late to finish something, but it is the exception and done on my own choice. When my bosses ask for overtime I have always asked to be paid for it and when they refuse I have rejected it, except for one time in my career. That one time is when there were a pair of us working on a critical thing and my partner was severely injured in an auto incident with six broken ribs and other major issues. I agreed to work some extra hours in exchange for 1:1 comp time.

As I mentioned before, it is up to you to build your own quality of life. You can choose to work it with those consequence, you can choose to not work it with the consequence. If management knows you work your hours dependably and get your work done, it is easy to make the case about not working unpaid overtime hours. On the other hand, if you arrive late in the day, are frequently online or visibly goofing off, and you are struggling to get your work done, it is a much harder case to make. Perception is important, and if the perception is you are working the schedule you agreed and are getting all your work done, your bargaining position is incredibly strong.

The other point in the EU is that the same laws require 11 hours of unbroken rest between shifts, once every 24 hours. There are exemptions for specific roles (hospitals, police, etc.) and time spent on call doesn't count unless you are called in, but if they keep you until midnight, coming into work before 11am is a breach of health and safety law; you (the employee) would be liable, a company asking you to do so would be in breach of H&S law the same way a building site not supplying a hard-hat would be.

But of course, that's just the theory. In practice, it's all lies.

A decade ago when I worked as physician, being "on call" first meant you start working at 07:00 and do your normal shift until 16:00. Which, besides, on a normal day means 18:30. No overtime.

On a on-duty day you either go into the ER (if you win the fight) or grab The Phone and you are on call until 07:00 the next morning. Except that's untrue on at least two accounts.

The work process is deliberately designed in a way so you cannot possibly leave when your shift is over. Why? To start with, you need to attend the morning meeting and present that night's cases and all the xrays etc. The meeting starts one hour after the end of your shift. After the morning meeting, you must make sure that any patient on your department that is to be dismissed is dispatched (and gotten rid off!) until about 11:00 because only shuffling through new patients on a regular base brings money, and the insurance puts maximum allowed stays on them, etc etc. blah blah. This involves among other things putting up a considerate facial expression and mumbling "excellent, most excellent" while looking at surgical dressings, coding procedures (yes, you'd think an assistant could do that, but you're wrong!) and writing a report which the patient will take with them. If you are well-organized you dictated the report the day before, unless your boss decided to dismiss three people during the last minute of the morning meeting as today's special surprise. But of course, reviewing the report for spelling errors (if your assistant was a good assistant, she'd not work in a hospital!) takes almost as long as writing it. If it is written at all, that is... writing a one-page letter within only 20-22 hours is a hard challenge for an average assistant.

Now, if you are very lucky, and you don't get an "Uh, doctor, excuse me, I know you are on your way out, but..." from the nurse and you actually leave at around 11:30, and you don't run into your boss who is just on his way to the cafeteria and who will be asking: Woah, what's this, how come you are you already going home? ... then... if you are lucky, you don't have an accident on your way home. Because the compensation board does not deem an accident happening 4 1/2 hours after the end of your shift a commuting accident, and you had better not mention to the police or the liability insurance company, or anyone else that you drove a car with little over an hour of sleep during the last two days.

As for the night, if you got lucky and drew the ER card, and nothing special happens, the night will -- in comparison -- be kinda "relaxed" although it really has absolutely nothing to do with "on call". You will usually work more or less without break (but on an acceptable pace) until about 2-3 AM, and then get to sleep until about 6, maybe 6:30 if you're lucky. That is, if no big accident happens, and if you need not do one or two emergency operations during that night. But compared to what it looks like in the other case, this is still really, really easy going.

If you have The Phone you are being called every 3 minutes until about 04:30, then the calls slowly die off. If nothing happens, that is. If you are very lucky, you get to sleep from 05:00 to 06:30 when the calls start again. Except if something happens, in that case, well... you can guess.
Now... the thing is, if you care to work somewhat responsibly, you need more than 3 minutes to even look at a patient, let alone make a decision or do something (plus, you may need a minute or two to acutally reach the department if the call came from a different floor). So, responsible work is not even possible (but of course you are 100% responsible for the outcome), and the wording "on call" is simply an insult. There is no being "on call" if the next call arrives while you are still going to the current one.

Basically, for what most people (including your employer) will say "Oh, but it's not really work, it's only being on call", you are regularly (not exceptionally!) working 28+ hours with an uncertain 1-2 hours of break during which you sleep, twice, sometimes thrice per week. Of course you still have a normal 5-day week, so during the other 2 or 3 days you still work your "normal" 11 hours.

10 hours maximum? 11 hours rest? Fuck the law. Nobody cares.

If you are careless enough to mention that you think that the fact this happens regularly and by deliberate design can't be quite right, you're told that you should consider if maybe you are unfit for the profession, and three months later you'll be dismissed under some made-up pretext (didn't happen to me, but happened to a peer). To top it off with sugar, your boss calls every other head of department within a 100km radius, telling them not to hire you. Which, they would of course never do because doing so would be entirely illegal. But who gives a shit.

Now ask me why I'm doing a boring computer job instead now...

Usually physicians are specifically exempted.

This is due to the higher rates of mortality and other problems during transitions, which you are likely aware of. Reducing from 3 shifts per day to 2 or even 1 can increase problems from fatigue, but those are typically less than the problems from worker transitions.

Usually physicians are specifically exempted.

This is due to the higher rates of mortality and other problems during transitions, which you are likely aware of. Reducing from 3 shifts per day to 2 or even 1 can increase problems from fatigue, but those are typically less than the problems from worker transitions.

Here in the UK there have been "work to rule strikes" brought in by Junior Doctors because of working bad working hours. They have a new contract which outlines their new working hours:

• Maximum average 48 hour working week (reduced from 56) with doctors who opt out of the WTR capped at maximum average of 56 working hours per week.
• Maximum 72 hours’ work in any seven day period (reduced from 91).
• Maximum shift length of 13 hours (reduced from 14 hours).
• Maximum of five consecutive long (>10 hours) shifts (reduced from seven) with minimum 48 hours rest after a run of five consecutive long shifts (up from 11 hours rest).
• Maximum of four consecutive night shifts (reduced from seven) with minimum 46 hours rest after a run of either three or four consecutive night shifts (up from 11 hours rest).
• Maximum of four consecutive long, late evening shifts (>10 hours finishing after 11pm) with minimum 48 hours rest after four consecutive long, late evening shifts (up from 11 hours rest).
• No doctor should be rostered to work more frequently than one weekend in two (a slightly different definition of weekends applies to F2 doctors for one rotation only).
• Maximum eight consecutive shifts with 48 hours’ rest after eight consecutive shifts (reduced from 12 consecutive shifts), apart from low-intensity non-resident on-call rotas, for which a 12-day maximum applies.
• No more than three rostered on-calls in seven days except by agreement, with guaranteed rest arrangements where overnight rest is disturbed.
• Maximum 24-hour period for on call which cannot be worked consecutively except at weekends or by agreement that it is safe to do so.
• Work rostered following on-call cannot exceed 10 hours, or 5 hours if rest provisions are expected to be breached.

I know several people who work in hospitals and they all have stories similar to samoth and I myself have worked and still occasionally work in the games industry and have similar experiences in the past to Kylotan. However the reason things are like this is because people are two affraid to enforce their rights worrying they will never get a job again but, people who do enforce their rights nearly always win. The laws are constantly being changed to protect employees which is why we have now have protected status for "whistleblowers".

As for the games industry which is what the OP was asking about, well you only have to go back to the whole EA spouse fiasco to see how things have changed.