What Is the Law on Breaks at Work?

Employees who work more than six hours a day are legally entitled to at least a 20-minute rest period during their work. Additionally, employees are not permitted to work through their 11-hour daily rest break. If they do work during this period, they must be given compensatory rest as soon as reasonably possible. There are some exceptions to this rule, which are detailed in this article.

• Laws for breaks and lunches
• Breaks at work when pregnant
• Are paid 20-minute breaks required by law?
• Break entitlement for shift workers in the UK
• How many hours can an employee work without a break?
• Exceptions to worker break laws
• How to best manage regular employee breaks
• FAQs: break entitlement in shift work
• Talk to a Croner HR advisor

Whilst most employees have the right to take breaks at work, as a business owner it is not mandatory that you pay for them.

The Working Time Regulations (1998) governs legislation surrounding your staff member’s rights to adequate breaks. It entitles those over the age of 18 to three types:

• Rest breaks at work: Guarantees employees 20 uninterrupted minutes of rest during their working day. This only applies to staff that work over six hours a day. However, as mentioned, employers don't have to pay for that time if they do not want to.
• Daily rest: Requires workers to have at least 11 hours off between working days.
• Weekly rest: Requires workers to have at least 24 uninterrupted hours without work each week (or an uninterrupted 48 hours every fortnight).

If you need immediate support around ensuring your workers are taking the correct breaks at work, get in touch with one of Croner's expert HR and Employment Law experts on 01455 858 132.

Laws for breaks and lunches

Employees working more than six hours a day have the right to a minimum 20-minute rest break.

Whilst this is the legal minimum requirement, you can offer longer or more frequent rest periods.

It can be worthwhile to include your staff’s rights to breaks within your employment contracts to avoid confusion.

Whilst you are required to adhere to legal break requirements and honour your employees’ rights to one uninterrupted 20-minute rest break if they work more than 6 hours a day, you do have control over when they take them.

For example:

• Staff don’t have to take their break entitlement in the middle of the day; it just can’t be tagged on at the start or end of it. For example, staff can take a break at 09:00 if desired, given that the working day starts at 8:00, but not at 16:40 if the workday ends at 17:00.
• Staff members can spend it away from their desks or workstations.

There are exceptions to consider. Some workers are not entitled to the three types. This applies to employees working in:

• The police, armed forces, or other emergency services if they are dealing with an exceptional catastrophe or disaster.
• A job where the work is not measured (i.e., managing director).
• Sea transport.
• Air or road transport (mobile workers).

In most instances, UK workers in sea, air, and road transport are entitled to a specific set of regulations that dictate their rest rights and break entitlements.

There are some specific rules in place for mobile workers; their rights will depend on the nature of their work.

Breaks at work when pregnant

As an employer, you must conduct a risk assessment as soon as your employee informs you of their pregnancy.

The aim of the assessment is to determine if there are any risks to the employee and their baby. Among other considerations, you should assess the risk of standing or sitting without adequate rest periods.

If you do identify issues, you must make reasonable adjustments, including to break entitlements, to eliminate them.

Are paid 20-minute breaks required by law?

You are not obligated to pay employees for their rest periods.

You may decide to offer your staff payment at your discretion. But it’s important to adhere to what is outlined in the employee’s contract.

Break entitlement for shift workers in the UK

Several UK industries benefit from shift-based work. Whether in retail, health and social care, construction or transport, workers get more flexibility with various shift patterns.

UK law standardises how much rest time shift-based staff must take. A worker may be entitled to ‘compensatory rest’ if they are a shift worker and can’t take daily or weekly rest breaks between ending one shift and starting another. The Working Time Regulations 1998 establish 3 types of rest periods:

• Rest break at work.
• Daily rest.
• Weekly rest break.

Let us look at what each of these mean below.

1. Rest break rules at work

Rest break rules at work refer to staff entitlement to a break allowance of one uninterrupted 20-minute rest period during their working day. This only applies when they work more than six hours a day. The law on the statutory minimum length of rest breaks at work for an 8-hour shift stays the same as for any shift longer than 6 hours.

But, what about break entitlement for a 10-hour shift in the UK? Again, by law, the break allowance stays the same, unless the company voluntarily decides to offer more rest time at work. The same applies to break entitlements for 12-hour shifts in the UK.

Remember, rest breaks can be an unpaid, depending on what an employer decides. However, as an employer, you should specify your policy on rest breaks at work in your employment contracts. Also, remember that you do not have to stick to the minimum rest time prescribed by the law; you can increase it. We will talk more about this aspect further down.

2. Daily rest

Daily rest refers to the right to 11 hours of uninterrupted rest between working days. If employee finishes work at 9 pm, they should not start work until 8 am the next day.

3. Weekly rest breaks

Weekly rest breaks entitle workers to either:

• An uninterrupted 24 hours without any work each week
• An uninterrupted 48 hours without work each fortnight

However, if your staff are shift workers, and they can’t take daily or weekly rest between ending one shift and starting another, then are entitled to ‘compensatory rest’. These are breaks equalling the same length of time as the break, or part of it, that they have missed.

Let’s cover this in more detail below:

4. Compensatory rest

Compensatory rest refers to a period of rest provided later to compensate for a missed mandatory break. This practice is often seen in roles that involve continuous work or unpredictable situations, such as in hospitals, security services, and shift-based jobs. The compensatory rest should match the duration of the break that was missed and is usually taken on the same day or the following working day.

How many hours can an employee work without a break?

We see employers getting asked this question frequently by their workers.

But what if they work 13 or 14 hours a day over a particularly busy period? Remember, workers cannot work so long that it bleeds over into the 11 hours daily rest requirement we discussed earlier.

Let’s say an Events Producer and part of their team stay late into the evening before a big industry fair. They have the company stand set up, and a few transport issues delayed their schedule. So, they finish everything at 10 pm, 3 hours later than planned. In this case, they need to adapt the schedule going forward to leave the 11 hours legally recommended break intact.

The Events Producer could also decide to send part of the team home early so that they can start again early the next day.

Exceptions to worker break laws

There can be exceptions to the law requiring breaks for workers, however. As a rule, the nature of these workers' employment will not always allow for the three common types of rest breaks mentioned in the previous section.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), identifies the armed forces, emergency services, and police force as the top three sectors where exceptions to legal break requirements are common. When these workers deal with emergency situations, where the lives and well-being of others are dependent on their occupation, taking those 20 minutes after 10 hours of work might not be feasible.

The following employee categories are also exempt from the general Working Time Regulations:

• Workers who freely choose the hours they work (such as freelance or self-employed individuals), or those who do not have set weekly or monthly working hours.
• Sea transport workers.
• Air or road transport (also known as ‘mobile’ workers).

Further exceptions apply to security staff and shift workers. For example, if a shift worker chooses to change their shift, they may not be able to take their full rest period between shifts as a result. In this case, they should receive compensatory rest as soon as it is reasonable.

Workers can also choose to opt out of the 48-hour week, so they can work longer shifts. However, they must still have adequate breaks. In other words, they are not allowed to opt-out of rest break requirements.

How to best manage regular employee breaks

Everything we have talked about so far relates to minimum legal requirements. However, as an employer, you need to decide what fits the nature of your business. As a business leader, you do not need to only offer the legal minimum to your employees if you feel providing a 30 – 45-minute daily break would be more beneficial to your workforce over the long term.

Many office-based companies tend to specify a 45-minute to one-hour lunch or general break for lunch in their employment contracts. Now, there are no tea or lunch break laws in the UK as such. Still, strictly from a productivity point of view, it benefits employees to break their working day for a midday meal. They will feel refreshed, and more energised, and thus gain improved focus and drive.

On the other hand, we have seen factory-based companies offer three short breaks during 12-hour shifts. These tend to amount to one hour of rest time per day. If employees do repetitive, monotonous work standing on the production line for hours, such a break pattern may benefit their health and focus.

You should always prioritise your employees’ health and minimise health & safety risks. Think of how much a serious shopfloor accident, caused by an exhausted worker, may cost in terms of production setbacks and health loss. If an experienced worker ends up on sick leave for months due to a lack in adequate breaks, it will potentially cost you much more than two 15-minute coffee breaks in addition to their lunch break.

Key takeaway: evaluate different types of shifts and break schedules and adapt your approach to those that lead to productive outcomes over the long term.

FAQs: break entitlement in shift work

Where the law talks in general terms and refers to more extended periods of time, it can get confusing. Our advisors get repeatedly asked two questions regarding break entitlements for shift work. We will list both below, together with the one answer that applies to both questions:

• How many breaks in an 8 - hour shift in the UK?
• How many breaks in a 12 - hour shift in the UK?

As we mentioned, we only have one answer. The law specifies an uninterrupted 20-minute rest that they can take away from their desk or workstation. However, Acas suggests that, if a break cannot be taken at the planned time due to either accident or emergency, then it can be taken in another way such as later in the day.

Now, if, in a work-related emergency, (an exceptional event) such as an accident or a risk that an accident is about to happen arose, and your employee could not take their rest at all, you have another option available. You can offer them compensatory rest breaks, which we discussed above.

This means they take their usual rest but later. Compensatory breaks cover their exact entitlement, which they will benefit from, let’s say, the next working day. Employers must always provide compensatory rest as soon as reasonably possible.

Talk to a Croner HR advisor

As an employer, managing shift work comes with its challenges, including staff breaks. You will want to balance minimum break entitlement with productivity and operating costs. Our advisors have seen how cutting corners can end up costing you more when it causes accidents and compensation claims.

Do not risk mismanaging staff breaks and end up with unnecessary workplace conflicts or accidents on your hands. For immediate support, call our friendly advisors and we’ll help you identify the rest pattern that suits your business and workforce best, on 01455 858 132.