Browse frequently asked questions and answers on key HR issues. Navigate by topic or key word search. View latest additions or suggest a question to the XpertHR editorial team.


Do the rest break and rest period provisions of the Working Time Regulations 1998 apply to all workers?

What is the minimum amount of rest an adult worker must be allowed?

What is the minimum amount of rest a worker under 18 must be allowed?

What rights do doctors in training have under the Working Time Regulations 1998?

Are employers obliged to pay their workers for rest breaks?

What happens if an employer fails to allow a worker sufficient rest periods?

Where a worker is entitled to a 20-minute rest break under the Working Time Regulations 1998 can this be taken as two 10-minute breaks?

Is a worker entitled to a 20-minute rest break for each six-hour period worked?

Can workers opt out of rest breaks?


If an employee works for six hours a day is he or she entitled to a rest break?

Regulation 12(1) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) provides that where an adult worker's daily working time is more than six hours, he or she is entitled to a rest break. In the absence of a collective or workforce agreement determining the length of that break, it should be at least an uninterrupted, continuous period of 20 minutes, which the worker is entitled to take away from his or her workstation. It follows that where the working period is up to and including six hours, there is no statutory entitlement to a rest break. Any such entitlement would be a matter of contract between employer and employee.

In the case of young workers (below the age of 18 but above compulsory school age) there is an entitlement to a rest break of at least 30 minutes, which should be consecutive if possible, if the worker's daily working time is more than four and a half hours. Again, the worker is entitled to take the break away from his or her workstation.

Want to see more?

login arrow blue

XpertHR provides answers to more than 1,000 FAQs. But that's not all...
Request a demo today to find out how XpertHR can benefit your organisation

Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, are agency workers entitled to the same rights relating to working time and annual leave as direct recruits?

Top