Take a Break! Your working time rights
Contents of this page:
- Know your working time rights
- Warning – Not everybody enjoys all working time rights
- Happy Holidays!
- When can you take your holidays?
- How long do you have to wait for your holiday rights?
- How much should you be paid when on holiday?
- Take a break!
- Breaks at work
- Can the provisions be varied?
- Under 18?
- Questions & Answers
- Get a better deal at work - join a union
- More information about your working time rights
Thanks to Europe, most people at work now have basic rights to proper time off, breaks and holidays.
This page explains how you may benefit from:
- four weeks' paid holiday a year
- a break when the working day is more than six hours
- a rest period of 11 hours every working day
- a rest period of 24 hours once every seven days
A second TUC page Get a Life sets out your rights on working hours and night work.
Know your working time rights
Working time rights are complicated. Some do not apply to everyone at work, although most people are covered in some way. In particular, almost everyone now has a right to four weeks paid holiday.
Because the Working Time Regulations apply to 'workers' this means that the rights apply not just to employees but also to agency workers, homeworkers, trainees, so-called casuals and most freelancers (other than the self-employed who run their own businesses).
Individuals or groups of workers can opt out or agree to vary some of the rights. The ones we describe are the minimum legal European standard. Many employers do better and unions have often negotiated higher standards for their members.
This page answers basic questions about your working time rights. Some rights are clear and straightforward, while others may depend on how the courts interpret the regulations.
In this page we talk about the contract with your employer. What this says will determine whether you are legally an employee or a worker. In many areas of employment rights this is an important - and complicated - difference, but working time rights apply to both groups. The contract with your employer for employees will be the contract of employment and is normally written down. Workers may have what is known as a contract for services, which even if not written down, still counts as a legal contract.
We also try and answer the commonest questions, but everyone's circumstances are different and this page tells you where to get further advice. You should not rely on this page as a statement of the law.
If you are under 18 the rules are different, there's a special section of this page for you.
Another TUC page, Get a life! explains the other working time limits:
- a ceiling of 48 hours on the maximum average working week
- a ceiling of an average of eight hours night work in every 24
- free health assessment for night workers
Phone the TUC's know your rights line 0870 600 4 882 for a free copy. Calls are charged at the national rate.
Warning! - Not everybody enjoys all working time rights
Europe's rules do not apply to everyone at work, although new groups gain rights in the next few years (see below). A very few people get no protection, nearly everyone get rights for paid holidays, while most enjoy rights to paid holidays and breaks.
Workers in the following groups are entitled to paid holidays, but not rights to breaks:
- armed forces and civil protection services (such as the police)
- those whose "working time is not measured or pre-determined" such as senior managers
- workers employed by other members of their family
- ministers of religion and others who officiate at religious ceremonies
Not all civil protection personnel are excluded. Ambulance personnel, fire fighters and prison staff are covered. Others are in a legal grey area and need specialist advice.
The exclusion of those with 'unmeasured working time' does not cover everyone with a managerial role. The key question is how your contract with your employer specifies your working hours and responsibilities. There have been some successful Employment Tribunal cases against employers who have tried to abuse this exemption and Europe is concerned that the UK has made this exemption too broad, so it may change.
You will need to take more advice nearer the time if you work in any of the following categories. While we know the starting dates for some new rights, we do not yet know all the details of how they will work in practice.
Starting in June 2002
- Seafarers on EU registered vessels and all vessels calling at EU ports will get four weeks annual paid leave. Working time will be based on six eight hour days and one rest day, unless this is varied by an agreement with the union. In any case, hours of work must not exceed 14 hours per day or 72 hours per week. Daily hours of rest may not be divided into more than two periods, one of which must be at least six hours long.
Starting in June 2003
- Transport workers who work in a fixed location (rather than on the move), will get the right to four weeks paid holiday, a rest break if the working day is longer than 6 hours, a rest period of 11 hours every working day, and a rest period of 24 hours once every 7 days. Breaks and rest periods may be more flexible for some rail workers who are essential for the service such as signal operators. Note that if your employer is not directly involved in the business of transport then the regulations already apply to you. For example, all workers in the road haulage, delivery or distribution firm are excluded at the moment but if you work for a retailer in a station or sell petrol at a garage then you are already covered by the regulations.
- Junior doctors in training will get the right to four weeks paid holiday. In principle they will get a rest break if the working day is longer than 6 hours, a rest period of 11 hours in every working day and a rest period of 24 hours in every seven days, but the timing of these breaks and rest periods is likely to be flexible.
- Mobile transport workers will get four weeks paid leave and the right to 'adequate' rest breaks. Details of the right to rest breaks are not known yet.
- Offshore workers will get four weeks paid leave from June 2003.
Happy Holidays!
Almost everyone at work is now entitled to a minimum of four weeks paid leave each year.
This means that if you work full-time five days a week you should get twenty days of paid leave every year.
If you work part time you should get four times what you work on average each week. For example if you work three days a week then you should get twelve days holiday.
But this is not in addition to bank holidays. There is no general legal right to time off on bank holidays. Many people have this right in the contract with their employer, but if you don't, bad employers can make Christmas Day and other holidays count as part of your annual holiday entitlement as long as you are paid for them.
When can you take your holidays?
You do not have the absolute right to choose when you take your holiday. Your employer can tell you when to take your leave, and can also stop you taking your holiday at particular times of the year.
If you are requesting a holiday, you must give your employer sufficient notice. This must be twice the number of days of leave that will be taken.
Your employer must give you the same period of notice if he or she is telling you when you must take your holiday.
However while your employer can refuse your request for a holiday, you cannot turn down your employer's instruction to take leave.
So if you want five days holiday you must give your employer ten days notice, or if your employer is telling you that you must take one day's holiday then two day's notice is required.
If your employer wants to rule out some periods for holiday requests the notice required is the same as the period during which holidays cannot be taken. In other words if the employer wants to stop people taking holidays for the four-week period before Christmas, then four weeks notice must be given.
How long do you have to wait for your holiday rights?
You now get holiday rights from your first day of employment, thanks to a court case brought by the trade union BECTU. This made the government remove a 13-week qualifying period.
Instead employers can now use a system that allows leave entitlement to build up over the first 'leave year' of employment (known as the 'accruals system').
The 'leave year' is an important term. If you are a permanent employee, it will probably be specified in your contract of employment and will probably be the same for everyone where you work (usually either from April to March or from January to December).
If no leave year is specified, then it may be taken to start on your first day of employment. (Unless you have been in your job since before October 1 1998, in which case your leave year starts every October 1.)
If your employer chooses to use the accruals system then the amount of leave that you can take in the first leave year of your job is proportionate to the number of months worked, including the current one. This figure must be rounded up to the nearest half day.
How to calculate your holiday entitlement under the first year 'accruals system':
1) divide your total annual holiday entitlement by twelve to find out your entitlement each month
2) multiply the resulting figure by the number of months that you have worked (count part of a month as a whole one because the legal entitlement increases in advance at the start of each month)
3) round the resulting figure up to the next half of a whole day.
The following examples are based on a worker entitled to the minimum four weeks annual holiday:
- In the third month of employment a full-time worker working five days per week will have built up five days leave (20 divided by 12, times three). Another way of looking at this is a quarter of the year worked, a quarter of the entitlement.
- In the first month of employment a part-timer working three days a week will be able to take one day's leave. This is calculated by dividing 12 days (the proportion of the annual holiday to which this part-timer is entitled) by 12 months to give one day each month.
- In the eighth month of employment a full-time worker working five days per week will have built up thirteen and a half days leave entitlement. (20 divided by 12, times eight, rounded up to the nearest half-day). Two-thirds of the year worked, two thirds of the entitlement.
How much should you be paid when on holiday?
If you work regular hours for a regular week's pay, then you should be paid the same for a week's holiday.
If your weekly pay varies then you should get the average you earned over the last 12 weeks. This includes shift-pay, commission and bonuses.
Overtime is only included if you have to do it every week and it is written into your contract ('contractual overtime').
Some employers claim to include holiday pay in your regular pay packet. We deal with this later.
Take a break!
You should get at least one day off every week and an uninterrupted break of 11 hours every day.
But your employer can meet the weekly rest requirement by giving you two days off a fortnight. So you could work 12 days in a row and then have 2 days off without breaching the limit.
But some workers are treated differently:
These include those listed on above and:
- security guards, caretakers and other jobs where you need to be there to protect people and property
- where the job involves long traveling distances
- where the job requires 'continuity of service or production' such as hospitals, prisons, docks, airports, media, post and telecoms, civil protection (eg the police), agriculture, and industries where work cannot be interrupted such as utilities
- jobs where there are seasonal rushes such as tourism, post and agriculture
- Shift workers when they are in the process of changing shift
The right can also be suspended if there is an emergency or accident.
However if your job falls into one of these categories all your employer can do is move your breaks or time off as they must provide what the law calls 'compensatory rest' to fully make up any time off that you miss.
Breaks at work
You are also entitled to a break of 20 minutes away from where you normally work if your working day will be longer than six hours.
But the same groups of workers who have different provisions for daily and weekly breaks can also have their breaks at work varied. Again if you cannot take your break you must be given time off at another time.
In some jobs you may be entitled to longer breaks. If your job is particularly repetitive or dangerous (such as the threat of RSI to keyboard workers) then you may be entitled to more breaks, at least away from the dangerous activity. Take advice if you are in this position.
Can the provisions be varied?
Individuals cannot opt out of, or change, their breaks. The only way to vary the right to a break is through a collective agreement between management and the workforce. The entitlement to breaks cannot be ended, but their timing can change.
Where there are recognised trade unions this will become part of the normal negotiating process, and can bring benefits to both workers and employers.
If there are no unions there is a provision for what is called a 'workforce agreement'. The employer will organise an election for workforce representatives who will then conclude an agreement.
The TUC is worried about this procedure. It is under the control of the employer, and reps without union back-up are much less likely to get a good deal. If this is going on in your workplace, you may want to discuss with an appropriate union how best to use it as a way of unionising your fellow workers.
Some minor provisions can also be varied in the contract with your employer.
Under 18?
If you are over the school leaving age (16) but younger than 18 you are covered by a different set of European regulations - the young workers directive.
You have different and better rights to breaks
- Your holiday rights are the same as older workers
- You should get a continuous break of 12 hours every day (though this can be split in some narrow cases)
- You should get a two-day break every week. This cannot be averaged over a two-week period. In some narrow cases this can be reduced to 36 hours.
In an emergency, and where there is no adult worker available, these breaks can be suspended but the employer must make them up within three weeks.
Questions & Answers
My boss says that my holiday pay is already included in my basic pay, so when I go on holiday I don't get paid. Is this right?
If you are in this position then you should take expert advice, because whether this practice is legal or not depends on the details of each case.
For instance, as long as employees can take at least four weeks off it will probably be legal for an employer to increase pay rates for part time workers for the days that they work rather than paying them for holidays when they are actually taken.
What is clear is that your boss cannot:
- stop you from taking your four weeks leave entitlement;
- change your contract to reduce your pay in this way without your consent. This is called an unlawful deduction from your wages and you could take him or her to an employment tribunal.
- If you are a new worker, say that holiday pay is included in your pay rate without any evidence to back up this claim. Valid evidence would include specifying this arrangement in the contract with your employer.
I've changed my job - what happens to my holiday rights?
You cannot take unused holiday from one job to another. If you leave a job during your leave year you should get holiday pay for any unused holiday instead. But if you have taken more than you should, you may have to pay some holiday pay back.
The amount of holiday you are entitled to for part of a year is worked out on a straightforwardly proportionate basis - you get one twelfth of your holiday entitlement for each month you have worked.
For example if you have worked for three months of your leave year then you are entitled to one quarter of your holiday.
If you leave after three months of your leave year and you have not taken any holiday then your holiday pay is worked out like this. Three months is one quarter of a year. Assuming you are entitled to four weeks paid holiday a year you have a right to one quarter of this after three months - one week. You should therefore get one week's holiday pay added to your final pay cheque.
If you leave after six months and have taken all your four weeks leave then your employer could make you pay back two weeks' pay.
I'm not getting my breaks, what should I do?
If you are a union member you should ask your union for advice. If you are not, and feel able, you should raise it with your employer. They may simply not know about, or understand, an admittedly complex area of law.
As a last resort you can take a case to an Employment Tribunal, though sometimes the threat of such an action will be enough to get your employer to move. Employment Tribunals are informal courts that deal with work-related disputes. You need to get a form called an "ET1" from a Citizens' Advice Bureau, your union or a local job centre. You are strongly advised to take advice before doing this.
How is my compensatory rest worked out?
Even if you fall into one of the categories that means you are not covered by some of the rules on breaks, you should still get "compensatory rest."
This means that you may have to take your breaks or time off at a different time. You can check this by working out how many hours a week in total you are getting as time off either as breaks at work or between shifts. On average it should be more than 90 hours.
The rules for compensatory rest are not set out in detail, but the government suggests that you should not have to wait more than a couple of weeks for daily rest or more than a couple of months for weekly rest. If you look at your last eight weeks at work and find that you are have not had 90 hours average rest then your employer should be clear about how you can catch up.
Can I insist on taking my holidays at a certain time - for example during term-time or to co-incide with friends?
No. Under the Working Time regulations if you wish to take a holiday then you should give your employer at least twice as much notice as the period of holiday that you want to take. For instance, if you want to take a week's holiday then you must give at least two weeks notice. However, your employer can turn down your request to take leave by giving you a 'counter notice'. This must be done within a maximum period that is equal to the amount of leave that you have requested counting from the date when your employer receives your request. For example, if you request a week's leave your employer then has one week in which to refuse your request.
Do I still earn holiday pay when I am off sick?
Yes. A recent employment tribunal case has made this absolutely clear.
Do I still earn holiday pay when I am on maternity leave?
Yes, unless your contract with your employer specifically rules this out.
Can my employer include bank holidays in my four weeks minimum leave?
Yes. But many employers will give bank holidays in addition.
Can I be made to work bank holidays?
It depends on what the contract you have with your employer says. Contrary to widespread belief, there is no absolute legal right to take bank holidays off. However many people's employers say in their terms and conditions that you do not have to work on bank holidays and get annual leave in addition. This is unlikely to apply however in service occupations such as retail, call centres or public services where the employer's business does not shut.
When does the leave year start?
This is usually specified in your contract. If not, then it is the anniversary of your first day at work with your current employer, unless you started your job before October 1 1998, in which case it is October 1.
Can I take time off for a family emergency?
There is a separate right to take unpaid leave if there is a domestic emergency involving someone for whom you have a caring responsibility. You can find out about this in the TUC page Time off for families which also contains information about your rights to take unpaid parental leave before your child's fifth birthday. You can get this from the TUC know your rights line 0870 600 4 882.
Get a better deal at work - join a union.
At times we all need advice or support in connection with employment.
Everyone has the right to join a union - it costs less than you think and your employer doesn't need to know you are thinking of joining up. The average cost of being in a union is only 92p a week for part-timers and £1.99 for those working full-time.
To find out more about how to join a union and which union is the right one for you, complete our form, phone the TUC on 0870 600 4882 or write to: Join a Union Campaign, TUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LS.
More information about your working time rights
Free government literature on the working time directive can be ordered from the Department of Trade and Industry's Publications Department 020 7215 6024 or downloaded from TIGER, the DTI's Tailored interactive Guidance on Employment Rights website at http://www.tiger.gov.uk.
The Health and Safety Executive infoline on 08701 545500 or the Environmental Health department of your local council can help with queries on the 48 hour week and night work. ACAS is a public body that promotes good workplace relations. Their public enquiry points can provide general advice on rights at work for employees and employers.
Birmingham 0121 456 5856
Bristol 0117 946 9500
Cardiff 029 2076 1126
Fleet 01252 811868
Glasgow 0141 204 2677
Leeds 0113 243 1371
Liverpool 0151 427 8881
London 020 7396 5100
Manchester 0161 833 8585
Newcastle 0191 261 2191
Nottingham 0115 969 3355
Your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau or Law Centre will provide employee rights advice. Your local library may know of other local agencies able to advise or assist.
If you need information about making a claim or Tribunal procedures you should call the Employment Tribunal Service Enquiry line 0845 7959775
If you think your problem may have a discrimination aspect then you might find the following helpful:
The Equal Opportunities Commission 0161 833 9244
Commission for Racial Equality 020 7828 7022
Disability Rights Commission 0845 622633
Lesbian and Gay Employment Rights 020 7704 8806 (women), 020 7704 6066 (men)