Employment Topics Law – Rest Breaks at Work

 

This page is about the legal requirement that your workers have to breaks at work – including smoking breaks (they don’t have a right to them!)

 

If you would simply like immediate help or advice on anything related to work breaks for your employees call us on 01543 308642 or email us at info@creamhr.com and we’ll help to answer your specific question.

 

As a business owner or manager it is important that you are aware of your requirements regarding giving your employees the correct number of work breaks according to statute.

Work breaks are largely governed by the Working Time Directive.

Essentially there are three types of break –

  • ·         Rest breaks
  • ·         Daily rest
  • ·         Weekly rest

 

Hopefully the definitions are fairly obvious. Rest breaks are breaks for your employees during their time at work. Daily breaks are breaks between finishing one day’s work and another. Weekly breaks are whole days when employees don’t come into work – normally weekends.

 

Rest Breaks – Adult workers (those over 18 years old) are entitled to a break of 20 minutes for every 6 hours worked. This break can be paid or unpaid, dependent on the terms of your employee’s contract of employment.

 

Young Workers (over “compulsory school leaving age” but under 18) are entitled to a break of 30 minutes for every 4.5 hours worked.

 

Most organisations allow tea or lunch breaks or similar during the working day. If you don’t you do need to be aware of these requirements.

 

One of our favourite topics regularly comes up when discussing rest breaks and that is Smoking Breaks. There is NO requirement under UK or European legislation to provide Smoking Breaks – you are not affecting your employee’s human rights by not giving smoking breaks!

 

Daily Rest – Adult workers are entitled to a break of 11 hours between working days. Most employees and workers receive this as a matter of course. However there are occasions such as when businesses are trying to clear a backlog of work when people are asked to work late and start early – make sure that you are aware of this rule in such circumstances.

 

Weekly Rest – Adult workers are entitled to 24 uninterrupted hours clear of work each week and 48 uninterrupted hours per fortnight.

 

There will always be exceptions to these rules

 

If the following relates to your employees or workers then their working week is NOT covered by the Working Time Regulations –

  • ·         They can freely choose how long they will work (executive roles)
  • ·         They work in the armed forces, police or emergency services – in some cases they are excluded
  • ·         Your employees or workers are domestic servants in private houses

 

Breaks can also apply differently in some circumstances –

  • ·         If your employees travel a long distance from home to work
  • ·         If they work in different locations often – setting patterns is difficult
  • ·         If they work in surveillance or security work
  • ·         Their work is in industry with peak periods such as agriculture, tourism or retail#
  • ·         If there is a risk of an accident or there is an emergency
  • ·         If the work requires round the clock staffing – such as hospital
  • ·         If they are employed in the rail industry and work on board trains or in roles that are irregular such as ensuring that trains run on time

In these cases your employees or workers are entitled to “compensatory rest”. This rest is taken later, ideally during the same or following working day. These employees and workers are entitled to a minimum 90 hours rest per week on average. In these cases the rest may come later than normal.

 

And finally – if your employees and workers work in air, road or sea transport they are known as mobile workers. They are excluded from the usual regulations and are entitled to “adequate rest.” This rest must be sufficient to ensure that tiredness or other safety issues do not cause them or other people around them injury.

 

If you have any questions regarding breaks at work, call us on 01543 308642 or email us at info@creamhr.com and we’ll help to answer your specific question.

 

 

DISCLAIMER – should you decide to use any of the information provided on this site without our expert guidance, you do so at your own risk.  

Almost every employment/employee related situation is unique and as such it is always wise to seek specific expert advice before undertaking any action.