Working time and rest breaks: 20 minutes, 11 hours and the 48 limit

The most common argument on a British shift goes like this: hour seven, and nobody has been sent to lunch. The law answers briefly, and in minutes. Knowing the minutes is more useful than arguing from feeling.

How long is the break, and after how many hours?

A worker over 18 who works more than 6 hours a day is entitled to one uninterrupted 20-minute break. The key word is uninterrupted: one pause, not four of five minutes. It can be a lunch or a tea break.

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The detail that causes most of the confusion: the break does not have to be paid. Whether it is paid depends on the employment contract.

How many hours must there be between shifts?

11 hours in a row between working days. GOV.UK gives the example directly: finish at 8pm and you should not start again before 7am.

Weekly rest is the employer's choice: either an uninterrupted 24 hours each week or an uninterrupted 48 hours each fortnight.

In total, rest entitlement is counted as 90 hours a week on average, with breaks during the working day on top of that figure.

What about the 48-hour weekly limit?

You cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average. The average is normally taken over 17 weeks — so one heavy week is not in itself a breach, while sustained overwork is.

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You can choose to opt out of the limit. For the detail of how the opt-out works, GOV.UK points to Acas.

The limit may not apply where 24-hour staffing is required; in the armed forces, emergency services and police; in security and surveillance; to a domestic servant in a private household; to seafarers, sea-fishermen and workers on inland waterway vessels; and where working time is not measured and the worker controls it, for example a managing executive with control over their own decisions.

What are the rules for workers under 18?

For young workers — above school leaving age but under 18 — the standards are stricter:

A 30-minute break if the work lasts more than 4.5 hours, in one continuous block where possible. Daily rest of 12 hours. Weekly rest of 48 hours. Working time of no more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week.

Departures are allowed only for an exceptional event such as an accident, and only when all of it holds at once: no worker over 18 can do the job, the work is temporary and it must be done immediately. Missed rest is then compensated by the same amount of time — and it must be taken within the following 3 weeks.

Who does not get breaks, and what is compensatory rest?

Some work is outside the normal break rules, and in exchange the worker may be entitled to compensatory rest of the same length as the break missed. GOV.UK lists the situations: shift work where rest between shifts is impossible; work far from home, such as an oil rig; work based in several places a reasonable distance apart; security and surveillance; busy seasonal industries such as agriculture, retail, postal services and tourism; exceptional events and accidents; round-the-clock roles such as hospital work; rail staff on trains and those keeping trains on time; split working days, such as a cleaner working morning and evening; and groups whose rights were changed by a collective or workforce agreement.

A separate carve-out covers domestic workers in private homes, such as cleaners and au pairs: they are not entitled to rest breaks on health and safety grounds.

And one rule few people remember: where work is monotonous and that in itself puts health and safety at risk — on a production line, say — the employer should give enough breaks. The law names no specific minutes here.

What if you are not given breaks?

Start with the employment contract: it can give more than the law, but not less. If the contract is silent and you are not getting 20 minutes after six hours of work, that is no longer a question of goodwill towards the employer but of a standard not being met. For advice on working time and on opting out of the 48-hour limit, GOV.UK points directly to Acas.