Helping you ensure that all your staff take the correct number of breaks and don’t work too many hours

  • The law covering working hours and rest breaks can be complex.
  • We can analyse existing working patterns, draft opt-out agreements and assess more complex working arrangements to ensure your company is fully compliant.

What are working hours and rest breaks?

Working hours and rest breaks are the time that an employee is required to work and take breaks. The maximum working hours are set by law in the UK, with most employees working a standard 35-40 hours per week. Employees are entitled to rest breaks, including a minimum of 20 minutes break if they work more than 6 hours per day.

Unless they have signed an opt-out agreement, employees and workers should not be working more than 48 hours per week. If you have employees and/or workers working more than 48 hours per week and they haven’t signed an opt-out, you run the risk of a claim being brought against your company.

By law, the majority of employees and workers are entitled to certain rest breaks. For example, they are entitled to:-

  • A 20-minute rest break if you work more than 6 hours a day;
  • 11 hours rest between working days; and
  • Either: an uninterrupted 24 hours without any work each week; or
    an uninterrupted 48 hours without any work each fortnight.

There are also special rules relating to working hours and rest breaks for employees and workers who work nights and/or complete sleep in shifts.

This is a complex area of law and it is important to understand that the rules differ for what constitutes ‘working time’ depending on whether you are:-

  • calculating working hours; or
  • calculating the national minimum/living wage.

How can Moore Barlow help?

We can draft a working time opt-out agreement on your behalf for you to give to staff who, on average, works more than 48 hours per week.

We can also help you assess working patterns and confirm if employees are taking the correct number of breaks. If we uncover any issues during this analysis, we can work with you to resolve them and minimise the risk of a possible claim being brought against your company.

We can also help you analyse more complex working arrangements such as shift patterns, night time working, on-call rotas and all sleep-in shifts to ensure that employees and workers are taking the correct number of breaks. We can also offer advice on the National Minimum Wage Regulations to confirm that your company is fully compliant.

Our expert team work across our offices in Woking, Guildford, Southampton, London, Richmond and Lymington. Contact us for specialist employment law advice.