Holiday:

Anyone who works for you for a continuous period of 13 weeks or more is entitled under the Regulations to paid holiday at a minimum rate of four weeks per year. Again, the holiday provisions of the collective agreements in force in the UK television industry are superior to this, and if you observe them you should not fall foul of the Regulations.

Working hours:

The Regulations provide that nobody may be required to work more than an average of 48 hours per week. Though on the face of it that seems simple enough, interpretation of it in practice is complex, requiring definitions of what does and what does not constitute "work" and of the period over which the average should be calculated, and arithmetical formulae for calculating the average(s).

The reference period adopted by the UK Government in the Regulations is 17 weeks, which may in practice mean calculating average working hours over consecutive fixed 17-week periods or over "rolling" 17-week periods calculated from the start of any given working week and ending 17 weeks later.

Additional complications arise when someone works for an employer for less than 17 weeks — as frequently occurs in television production. As a rule of thumb, you would be prudent to ensure that the working hours of such a person do not average more than 48 hours per week over the period of the engagement, however many weeks it may be.