Employers in the United Kingdom are legally required to give their employees rest breaks if they are working shifts of more than six hours, in accordance with the Working Time Regulations 1998. The aim of this law is to ensure the safety and well-being of staff in the workplace. It is essential that all businesses and companies with staff understand and adhere to these rules, as any breaches can have serious legal consequences. Such penalties can include unlimited fines, two years imprisonment for directors, and improvement/prohibition notices issued by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). In this guide, we will explain all that employers need to know about providing breaks for staff working 8-hour work shifts in the UK.
Working Time Regulations 1998: Mandatory breaks
The Working Time Regulations 1998 set out three types of breaks in the workplace:
- Rest breaks during the working day – employees must have a 20-minute rest break during the working day if working a shift exceeding 6 hours.
- Rest breaks between working days – employees must have a break of at least 11 hours between the time they finish work and start work on the following day.
- Rest breaks between working weeks – employees must also have a 24-hour break every 7 working days of work or 48 hours every 14 days of work.
Employees in the UK are entitled to an annual holiday entitlement. These rules apply regardless of whether the employee is classed as an agency worker, apprentice, casual or seasonal worker, doctor in training, or zero-hours worker. The rules differ, however, for those working at night and those under the age of 18 who have yet to finish school. Crucially, each type of rest/break has its own legal requirements and implications, as explained below.
Rest Breaks during the working day
Regulation 12 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 states that workers with a daily working time of more than six hours are entitled to a rest break during their working day. The rest break provided must be for an uninterrupted period of not less than 20 minutes. The Working Time Regulations 1998 also allow workers to take a break away from their workstations if they have one.
Workers in the UK often take a lunch or tea break during their 6 – 8 hour working shift, which counts as a rest break. Rest breaks should not be taken at the end of the shift; rather, they should preferably be at the approximate halfway point through the shift so that the employee has the greatest benefit from the break.
In order to comply with this law, it is important that those taking a break have no work interruptions or demands imposed on them during this time.
Important notes:
- The regulations set out the absolute minimum amount of time a staff member can take to recover from their work if working more than six hours, but they can offer more generous terms.
- Unless stated otherwise in their contract of employment, collective agreement or workforce agreement, an employee is not legally entitled to be paid for any rest breaks that they take. That said, most employers do pay staff for rest breaks.
- Employers should consider the type of work that their employees do, including if they undertake heavy or repetitive work and/or work that requires high levels of concentration. For example, air traffic controllers typically require longer and more frequent breaks from their workstation.
- The rest break rules differ for young workers. A young worker is one who is aged under 18 but has reached school leaving age (bear in mind that the school leaving age differs across the UK). If a young worker’s daily working time is more than four and a half hours, they must have a rest break of at least 30 minutes. The break should be for a consecutive amount of time and not broken into smaller amounts. Again, young workers can take this rest time away from their workstation if they have one.
Rest Breaks between working days
Regulation 10 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 states that employees are entitled to a minimum amount of daily rest between when they finish their working day and starting their next on the following day. The minimum break between working shifts is 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period of working for an employer.
The 11-hour daily rest break means, for example, that a worker who finishes their shift at 5 pm must not start their shift on the following day before 4 am.
Important notes:
- If it is not possible for an employer to ensure that a worker has the required daily rest break, perhaps due to an emergency in the workplace, they should still offer a break when it is next possible to do so.
- Young workers are entitled to a longer rest break between working days of 12 hours in each 24-hour period.
Rest Breaks between working weeks
Regulation 11 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 states that employees must also be given a weekly rest period. Specifically, they must have:
- An uninterrupted rest period of a minimum period of 24 hours every seven days of work or
- An uninterrupted rest period of a minimum period of 48 hours every 14 days of work.
The aim of this rule is to enable staff to have time away from work to properly recover and spend time away from work activities.
Important notes:
- Young workers are entitled to an uninterrupted rest period of a minimum period of 48 hours every seven days of work or
- The 48 hours of rest can be taken as a single block of 48 hours or two blocks of 24 hours.
- The minimum weekly rest period must not include any part of a daily rest period regulation 10 of the Working Time Regulations. The only exception to this is where it cannot be avoided due to “objective or technical reasons or reasons concerning the organization of work”.
