There is a new EU Working Time Directive, of which we must find out more.
It covers, as in our case, Shift Workers and prevents the sort of Rostering we have seen in the past. The finish on Lates and Starting on earlies malarky.
eg. when given say 2 days off they must be a clear 48 hours plus the remainder of the last day worked. This does not include late finishes of 2130hrs plus, and not start before a certain time; if you do start back on earlies again; 0600 hr starts are too early in this time period.
Also you MUST have at least 1 x 3 day block per month.
MW is very aware of this and is trying his best to sucker you all in to giving up your 8 days. If we all stand together then when the new directive becomes Law and I believe that this is not too far away( this year), then we will have to have the 3 day blocks a month allocated to us anyway.
Stand Firm, drag it out as long as you can, complain bitterly, because if you don't, then you will certainly lose your 8 days come the end of the year.
Why else is MW bribeing you with 2 days extra for the next years leave period?
This really must be an issue for the CC's to urgently sort out/drag out, as the longer it goes on the better off we should be.