A long day at work can feel better when broken up with rest breaks.
And there are three different types of rest breaks that you are legally entitled to if you work in the UK. One to secure time during your shift, one for time between shifts and one to ensure downtime over the course of a week.
Workers who can’t take or aren’t allowed rest breaks should speak to their manager informally first. And the rest breaks do not apply in the same way to people working in the armed forces, emergency services or police while they are dealing with an exceptional catastrophe or disaster.
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Rest break
A ‘rest break’ allows employees to have one uninterrupted 20 minute break, if they work for more than six hours. This can be counted as a tea or lunch break.
The break doesn’t have to be paid, it will depend on the individual employment contract. Employers can decide when their staff take their rest break, as long as it is taken in one go, and at some point during the middle of the day and the staff member is aware.
Gov.uk states: "Workers over 18 are usually entitled to 3 types of break - rest breaks at work, daily rest and weekly rest. Workers have the right to one uninterrupted 20 minute rest break during their working day, if they work more than 6 hours a day."
Daily rest
Gov.uk states: "Workers also have the right to 11 hours rest between working days, eg if they finish work at 8pm, they shouldn’t start work again until 7am the next day."
Weekly rest
Workers also have the right to either an uninterrupted 24 hours without any work each week or an uninterrupted 48 hours without any work each fortnight.
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