Asking for a friend: UK Working Rest Breaks
April 14, 2009 6:10 PM Subscribe
My friend works in a cinema and the contract states she has automatically opted out of the 48 work week. Do the daily rest breaks outlined here still apply?
Specifically
Daily rest - a break between working days
If you are an adult worker you have the right to a break of at least 11 hours between working days. This means as an adult worker, if you finish work at 8.00 pm on Monday you should not start work until 7.00 am on Tuesday.
She is scheduled to start work next Tuesday at 5pm and finish at 12am (at the earliest)
On Wednesday she is scheduled to start work at 8:30am and finish at 5pm.
Please help me in making sense of this legislation.
Specifically
Daily rest - a break between working days
If you are an adult worker you have the right to a break of at least 11 hours between working days. This means as an adult worker, if you finish work at 8.00 pm on Monday you should not start work until 7.00 am on Tuesday.
She is scheduled to start work next Tuesday at 5pm and finish at 12am (at the earliest)
On Wednesday she is scheduled to start work at 8:30am and finish at 5pm.
Please help me in making sense of this legislation.
AFAIK that's the question.
I don't have cinema experience with this but in my experience these laws are often ignored in practice. My advice to her would be to ask coworkers or a sympathetic manager. My coworkers in a similar shift-style job were all aware of the laws but the company chose to ignore it as it didn't suit them (ha!) If I'd kicked up a fuss, chances are that I would have just lost the second shift and therefore had less hours, with the company thinking that the problem was solved. Her mileage may vary of course, but my point is that even when legislation does apply, many employers ignore it.
posted by ask me please at 6:42 PM on April 14, 2009
I don't have cinema experience with this but in my experience these laws are often ignored in practice. My advice to her would be to ask coworkers or a sympathetic manager. My coworkers in a similar shift-style job were all aware of the laws but the company chose to ignore it as it didn't suit them (ha!) If I'd kicked up a fuss, chances are that I would have just lost the second shift and therefore had less hours, with the company thinking that the problem was solved. Her mileage may vary of course, but my point is that even when legislation does apply, many employers ignore it.
posted by ask me please at 6:42 PM on April 14, 2009
"...the contract states she has automatically opted out of the 48 work week"
Hold on a second. Every job I've held here in England has a separate document that one signs to opt out, and typically one is asked to sign this in a separate action. I'm by no means a Solicitor, but found this article that corroborates separate document / separate signature.
Not really an answer to your query, but I'd suggest she visit Citizens Advice bringing along a copy of her employment contract, and pitch this query to them.
I've managed large teams here in the UK (I work in banking) and it seems HR always urged us to tip toe around working time issues because employment tribunals are very pro employee in general, and employment tribunals don't seem to much like violations of the working time directive. Not advising she should quit and take her erstwhile employer to a tribunal, but this is a little too much like employer bullying for my tastes.
For the Americans commenting upthread, OP is mentioning the UK specific application of the EU Working Time Directive.
posted by Mutant at 12:26 AM on April 15, 2009
Hold on a second. Every job I've held here in England has a separate document that one signs to opt out, and typically one is asked to sign this in a separate action. I'm by no means a Solicitor, but found this article that corroborates separate document / separate signature.
Not really an answer to your query, but I'd suggest she visit Citizens Advice bringing along a copy of her employment contract, and pitch this query to them.
I've managed large teams here in the UK (I work in banking) and it seems HR always urged us to tip toe around working time issues because employment tribunals are very pro employee in general, and employment tribunals don't seem to much like violations of the working time directive. Not advising she should quit and take her erstwhile employer to a tribunal, but this is a little too much like employer bullying for my tastes.
For the Americans commenting upthread, OP is mentioning the UK specific application of the EU Working Time Directive.
posted by Mutant at 12:26 AM on April 15, 2009
Mutant: I'm not American. I was referring to UK work experience. (You're not the only expat out there!) And my point was really that employer bullying is rife. A lot of employers rely on the fact that going to the tribunal would be more trouble than it was worth for an employee who likes everything else about the job.
I'm not saying that this is what the OP should do, merely relating my experience of how things work in practice even when the law does apply. I was also not answering the question exactly, but I hope that it was helpful.
posted by ask me please at 1:14 AM on April 15, 2009
I'm not saying that this is what the OP should do, merely relating my experience of how things work in practice even when the law does apply. I was also not answering the question exactly, but I hope that it was helpful.
posted by ask me please at 1:14 AM on April 15, 2009
(Forgot to add, I suspect that HR departments in banking are a lot more observant of the laws than are employers like cinemas and the like. That has certainly been my experience, at least.)
posted by ask me please at 1:17 AM on April 15, 2009
posted by ask me please at 1:17 AM on April 15, 2009
well according to the directgov website her employer shouldn't be applying an opt-out to the 48 hour week to the whole workforce, and she has the right to cancel it even if it forms part of her contract. .
also i'm pretty certain that the minimum rest breaks between shifts thing applies no matter how many hours a week you're working. certainly that's how it reads on Businesslink:
"Workers aged 18 and over should have a minimum 11 hours' rest between each working day, and shouldn't be forced to work more than six days in every seven, or 12 days in every 14. It's especially important this is considered when arranging shifts."
(it does say that exceptions can be made for busy periods and emergencies but it doesn't sound like that's the situation your friend is in)
posted by kumonoi at 9:51 AM on April 15, 2009
also i'm pretty certain that the minimum rest breaks between shifts thing applies no matter how many hours a week you're working. certainly that's how it reads on Businesslink:
"Workers aged 18 and over should have a minimum 11 hours' rest between each working day, and shouldn't be forced to work more than six days in every seven, or 12 days in every 14. It's especially important this is considered when arranging shifts."
(it does say that exceptions can be made for busy periods and emergencies but it doesn't sound like that's the situation your friend is in)
posted by kumonoi at 9:51 AM on April 15, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 6:26 PM on April 14, 2009