Contracts of employment and working hours in the UK

The most important laws and rules are summarised for you here. We accept no legal liability for this article. For legal questions or more detailed information, we recommend consulting a legal expert.

You can read the exact regulations and exceptions here. 

Maximum working hours for employees

The British legislation on working time protects employees by specifying maximum working hours and prohibitions for certain days.

It is prohibited to work more than 48 hours a week on average, normally averaged over 17 weeks. Exceptions include armed forces, security, 24-hour staffing and other. 

However, working more can be chosen by opting out of the 48-hour week, if the employee is over 18 years old. Exceptions include airline staff, road transport industry workers, workers on ships and others. Opt-out agreements can be cancelled anytime, regardless of the employee’s contract. Opt-out agreements are currently not checked in this software.

Rest breaks

All employees have the right to take breaks during their working hours. These are mainly for rest, tea or lunch breaks.

Workers have the right to one uninterrupted 20 minute rest break during their working day, if they work more than 6 hours a day. 

Rest periods

Rest periods are important to maintain the health, safety and performance of employees.

Workers have the right to a daily 11 hours rest between working days. 

For a weekly rest period, workers have the right to either: an uninterrupted 24 hours without any work each week, or an uninterrupted 48 hours without any work each fortnight. The weekly rest period is currently not measured in this software and must therefore be considered and carried out independently.