Rest and Breaks

Daily rest (Regulation 9) An adult worker is entitled to a rest period of not less than 11 consecutive hours in any 24 hour period: a young worker is entitled to 12.

This covers any 24 hour period, not merely midnight to midnight. The Government believes that someone who works between, for example, 10am and 2pm has the right to 11 hours rest because although there is less than 11 hours between midnight and 10am or 2pm and midnight, there is more than 11 hours between the end of work at 2pm and the beginning of work at 10am the following day.

Weekly Rest (Regulation 10) An adult worker is entitled to an uninterrupted rest period of not less than 24 hours in each seven day period: a young worker is entitled to two days.

The employer is allowed to translate the adult worker's entitlement into two 24 hour rest periods in a 14 day period or one 48 hour rest period in a 14 day period. The Government expresses the hope that this would be by agreement with workers or their representatives, but does not make this a requirement and does not even require the employer to consult with a view to reaching agreement on this issue (or indeed any issue relating to working time).

Although the 24 hour period of weekly rest must be in addition to the 11 hour daily breaks, there is no specific provision for a 35 hour rest period. The Directive allows for the 11 hours daily rest to be counted as part of the 24 hours weekly rest where justified by 'objective, technical or work organisation conditions'.

This nebulous phrase is repeated in the Regulations without any clarification. The Government says that the 'work organisation conditions' must be relevant to any situation where the reduction of the break was required, but fails to include this requirement in the Regulations. Once again this will lead to uncertainty.

Breaks (Regulation 11) Adult workers are entitled to a rest break of at least 20 minutes if their daily working time is more than six hours. The rest break must be uninterrupted and the worker is entitled to spend it away from the workstation. This represents a significant improvement on the Tory proposals for a five minute 'break' to be spent at the workstation.

The Government states it is 'implicit' that the break must be taken during working time and cannot be taken either at the start or end of a period of working time as it cannot overlap with periods of daily or weekly rest. This must be right, but once again the Government fails to spell it out in the Regulations leading to possible legal argument and uncertainty.

There are no other requirements or conditions attached to the breaks, for example no requirement for the employer to give notice of taking a break, unless agreed between the employer and workforce.