22.10.2008

Working Time Regulations - Rest Breaks

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held in a case dealing with several aspects of rest breaks under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (Commissionaires Management v Hughes) that:-

• an employee is only entitled to one rest break once he has worked more than six hours; he is not entitled to a subsequent rest break if he works for twelve hours;

• where a rest break cannot be taken at the correct time, a proper compensatory rest break must be offered. It is not enough to say that an employee can rest between shifts;

• a claim can only be brought in respect of rest breaks for the three month period before presentation of a claim (six months if the statutory grievance applies). The concept of 'continuing breaches' to enable further backdating does not apply here.