Working time opt-out agreement template
One page, signed individually, cancellable on seven days' notice - and explicit that it disapplies the 48-hour average and nothing else. Keep it out of the contract so signing it stays a real choice.
Issue this as a standalone document, not a clause in the contract. The opt-out has to be an individual written agreement, and burying it in a contract pack everybody signs unread is what turns a valid agreement into a disputed one. It disapplies only the 48-hour average from regulation 4 - rest breaks, night work limits and paid holiday are untouched.
Download the agreement PDF · 2 pages · edit the [bracketed] parts
The template
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Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 5. Between [Company name] of [address] ("the Company") and [worker name] ("you").
Regulation 4(1) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 provides that your working time, including overtime, should not exceed an average of 48 hours for each seven days over a reference period of 17 weeks. By signing this agreement you agree that this limit does not apply to you.
This agreement disapplies the 48-hour average only. It does not affect your entitlement to daily rest, weekly rest, in-work rest breaks, the protections that apply to night work, or your right to paid annual leave. All of those continue to apply in full, and the Company remains responsible for your health and safety at work.
Signing this agreement is entirely your choice. You are not required to sign it in order to obtain or keep your job, and you will not be treated less favourably, subjected to any detriment, or denied any opportunity because you have declined to sign it or have later cancelled it. If you would prefer not to sign, tell [role] and nothing further is needed.
[This agreement applies indefinitely until you cancel it under clause 5. / This agreement applies from [date] to [date].]
You may cancel this agreement at any time by giving the Company [7 days'] notice in writing to [role or address]. The notice period will never be less than seven days and, in accordance with regulation 5, will never exceed three months. Once the notice expires the 48-hour average applies to you again, and the Company will adjust your hours accordingly.
The Company will keep an up-to-date record of workers who have signed an agreement of this kind, as regulation 4 requires, and will record the date this agreement is signed and the date any cancellation takes effect. You may ask for a copy of your own record at any time.
Worker: ......................... Print name: ......................... Date: .............
For the Company: ......................... Role: ......................... Date: .............
Copy given to the worker on: ............. Added to the opt-out register on: .............
Using it
- Do not put it in the contract. Issue it separately, and let people take it away and think about it. An opt-out signed as one page of a 20-page pack is much easier to challenge later.
- Do not issue it to anyone under 18. Young workers are capped at 8 hours a day and 40 a week under regulation 5A with no opt-out available, so there is nothing for them to sign.
- Maintain the register. Clause 6 is a real duty, not decoration. Remove people when they cancel or leave, so the list answers "who is opted out today" rather than "who has ever signed".
- Keep watching the hours anyway. The opt-out removes the average, not the health and safety duty. Someone routinely working 60 hours is a risk you still own.
This is a starting point for a general UK employer and is not legal advice. If you operate in a sector with its own working time rules - road transport, aviation, sea fishing or the offshore sector - those rules sit on top of this and are worth specific advice.
More to download: All 30 templates · 66 guides explaining the rules · 24 calculators
An opt-out register that stays current
CoDash records who signed what and when, and keeps it attached to the person rather than a folder - so when someone cancels or leaves, the register reflects it the same day.