All items: Rest breaks and rest periods

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  Ajayi and another v Aitch Care Homes (London) Ltd EAT/0464/11 (2 reports relating to this case)

  • Case round-up

    Date:

    1 June 2012

    Sinead Jones is an associate, and Phil Dupres and Beckie Howlett are trainee solicitors at Addleshaw Goddard. They round up the latest rulings.

  • Workers found sleeping at work not asserting right to rest break

    Date:

    18 April 2012

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the "refusal" or "proposed refusal" of a worker to accept his or her employer's contravention (or proposed contravention) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) must be communicated in advance to the employer. 

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  Associated British Ports v Bridgeman [2012] IRLR 639 EAT (1 report relating to this case)

  • EAT asks ECJ about workers' rights to daily rest and rest breaks when continuity of service needed

    Date:

    10 April 2012

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal has referred to the European Court of Justice the question of the extent to which employers can avoid giving workers daily rest periods and rest breaks because of the need for continuity of service or production. 

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  Commission of the European Communities v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [2006] IRLR 888 ECJ (2 reports relating to this case)

  • UK working time guidelines infringe EU law

    Date:

    1 October 2006

    On 7 September 2006, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that government guidelines accompanying the UK's Working Time Regulations are liable to render the right of workers to daily and weekly rest periods meaningless because they do not oblige employers to ensure that workers actually take the minimum rest periods.

  • Case round-up: Working time

    Date:

    26 September 2006

    This week's case round-up from Eversheds, covering working time.

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  Corps Of Commissionaires Management Ltd v Hughes [2009] IRLR 122 EAT (1 report relating to this case)

  • Working time: Rest breaks and compensatory rest

    Date:

    22 November 2008

    In The Corps of Commissionaires Management Ltd v Hughes EAT/0196/08, the EAT held that the entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998 to a 20-minute rest break where the working day exceeds six hours is an entitlement to a single rest break and not a rest break for every six hours worked. Where an exception means that the right to a rest break does not apply, the employer must provide compensatory rest, which should be granted at a time when the worker would otherwise be working.

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  Edwards and another v Encirc Ltd [2015] IRLR 528 EAT (2 reports relating to this case)

  • Working time: Time attending trade union and health and safety meetings constituted working time

    Date:

    1 August 2015

    In Edwards and another v Encirc Ltd [2015] IRLR 528 EAT, the EAT held that the time employee representatives spent attending trade union and health and safety meetings constituted "working time" under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

  • EAT decides working time includes attendance at union meetings

    Date:

    12 May 2015

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that the employment tribunal adopted an unduly restrictive approach when deciding that the time spent by two trade union representatives attending union meetings during the day was not "working time". The EAT said that the correct approach is to take into account the aims of the EU Directive relating to working time.

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  Edwards v Encirc Ltd ET/2412489/2013 (1 report relating to this case)

  • Employment tribunal decides attendance at union meetings is not "working time"

    Date:

    7 November 2014

    Two trade union representatives working night shifts claimed that the time they spent attending union meetings during the day was "working time" and so they were entitled to an 11-hour rest period from the end of the meetings until the start of their next night shift. The employment tribunal rejected this claim.

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  Federación de Servicios Privados del sindicato Comisiones Obreras v Tyco Integrated Security SL and another [2015] IRLR 935 ECJ (2 reports relating to this case)

  • Working time: Travel between home and first and last customer appointments is working time

    Date:

    31 January 2016

    In Federación de Servicios Privados del sindicato Comisiones Obreras v Tyco Integrated Security SL and another [2015] IRLR 935 ECJ, the ECJ held that, for peripatetic workers who travel directly to customer addresses from home and who travel home directly from customer addresses at the end of the working day, the time spent travelling on those first and last journeys of the day is working time within the meaning of art.2 of the Working Time Directive.

  • Travelling time for workers with no usual place of work counts as working time

    Date:

    10 September 2015

    The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that where a worker has no usual place of work, time spent travelling from and to home for the first and last customer visits of the day, should be counted as working time.

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  First Hampshire & Dorset Ltd v Feist and others EAT/0510/06 (1 report relating to this case)

  • First Hampshire & Dorset Ltd v Feist and others

    Date:

    30 January 2007

    In First Hampshire & Dorset Ltd v Feist and others EAT/0510/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that bus drivers are not entitled to a rigid 11 hours' rest in each 24-hour period, but instead should be given regular but undefined rest periods so as to prevent them injuring themselves or others through fatigue.

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  Gallagher and others v Alpha Catering Services Ltd (t/a Alpha Flight Services) [2005] IRLR 102 CA (3 reports relating to this case)

  • Case round up

    Date:

    1 March 2005

    Sally Logan and Polly Meudell of Addleshaw Goddard bring you comprehensive update on the latest decisions that could affect your organisation and provide advice on what to do about them.

  • Gallagher and others v Alpha Catering Services Ltd

    Date:

    1 February 2005

    In Gallagher and others v Alpha Catering Services Ltd [2005] IRLR 102 CA, the Court of Appeal held that airline catering workers are not excluded from the right to rest breaks by virtue of the Working Time Regulations, regulation 21(c).

  • Working time: Periods of 'downtime' are not rest breaks

    Date:

    28 January 2005

    In Gallagher and others v Alpha Catering Services Ltd, the Court of Appeal holds that, for the purposes of reg. 21(c) of the Working Time Regulations 1998, it is the worker's activities, not the activities of the employer's business, that are relevant when considering the need for continuity of service or production.

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  Grange v Abellio London Ltd [2017] IRLR 108 EAT (2 reports relating to this case)

  • Working time: Rest breaks can be refused without having been requested

    Date:

    13 April 2017

    In Grange v Abellio London Ltd [2017] IRLR 108 EAT, the EAT held that a worker does not have to have made an explicit request to take a rest break under reg.12(1) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 for the employer to have refused a rest break for the purposes of reg.30(1)(a). It is sufficient that working arrangements operate in such a way as to prevent the break from being taken.

  • Working time: employers must take active steps to provide rest breaks

    Date:

    23 November 2016

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employer has a proactive duty to ensure a worker's entitlement to take a rest break, and that entitlement will be "refused" if the employer puts into place working arrangements that fail to allow the taking of the required rest break.