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As an employer, the law requires you to allow your employees to take rest breaks while working for you. This applies to their working time during their shift and between each working day. Rest breaks during the day when your staff are working for you are essential. They enable your employees to stay fresh and maintain their energy to work productively. However, you could find your staff decide to take longer breaks than they are allowed to. This can harm your team by disrupting work and causing others to copy the behaviour of taking longer breaks. Therefore, it is essential to know the rules for rest breaks. This article will explain what you, as an employer, should do when your staff take a longer rest break than they are allowed.
What Are the Rules on Rest Breaks at Work?
When your employee is working, you must give them the rest breaks required by law. This applies whether they work in the workplace or work from home. Where your employee works at least six hours for you, you must allow them a rest break of at least 20 minutes, and you can tell them when they must take this rest break.
This rest break should be:
- uninterrupted;
- taken in one go;
- taken away from the employee’s workstation; and
- should be taken during their working day, ideally in the middle of it rather than at the end.
You are not legally required to:
- pay your workers when they take a rest break unless you agree to do so in their employment contract;
- offer your workers more than a 20-minute break during six hours of working for you; and
- provide a lunch break in addition to the rest break.
Instead, your workers’ legal rest break of 20 minutes when working for more than six hours could be their lunch break. If you wish to provide more or longer rest breaks, you may detail this in your staff’s employment contract.
How to Avoid Staff Taking Longer Rest Breaks
Occasionally, as an employer, you may deal with staff taking longer rest breaks throughout the day. To avoid this situation, you must be clear regarding break entitlements. This should be in your workplace policies in your employees’ handbook and should be easily accessible.
Furthermore, you should ensure that your employees are aware of them. Once your employees know the rules on rest breaks, they are less likely to break them. Additionally, you may decide that there are instances where an employee can take a more extended rest break than expected. Your policies may state these reasons and the process for making such a request.
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Taking a Longer Rest Break Than Allowed
If your staff take longer than allowed for their rest breaks, there are some actions you may wish to carry out. Your workplace rules should state that this behaviour is not permitted, and you may term it absent without permission. Breaking workplace rules may constitute misconduct.
Where your employee is taking a longer rest break than allowed, you may decide to discuss it informally with them. You may wish to listen to their viewpoint and find a way to resolve the issue. This action is particularly suitable where your employee has perhaps only been late from their rest break a couple of times. When discussing this, you can let them know how the lateness may impact productivity and other team members.
As with all instances requiring disciplinary action, you must follow a fair procedure that should be in line with the Acas code on disciplinary and grievance procedures. If you decide you need to take disciplinary action, you should:
- alert your employee to this immediately in writing, stating that you are doing so due to them taking a longer rest break than allowed, with the potential consequences;
- carry out a full investigation into the issue of taking longer lunch breaks;
- hold a disciplinary meeting soon after the investigation allowing your employee a reasonable time to prepare and giving them a chance to explain their behaviour;
- decide on the disciplinary outcome, for example, no action needed, an informal warning or written warning; and
- ensure you give a right of appeal.
Key Takeaways
As an employer, you must abide by your employment obligation to give staff mandatory rest breaks, including a 20-minute rest break when working more than six hours. You must be aware of the rules surrounding these, such as taking them somewhere in the middle of the shift rather than at the beginning or end of their shift and away from the workstation. However, you may face problems where staff take longer than allowed for their rest break. Where this occurs, you should understand what action you can take, such as either informal action discussing the issue with them or, in the worst-case scenarios, following your disciplinary and grievance procedure.
If you need help understanding what to do if your staff are taking extended lunch breaks in England, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
As an employer, you must give your staff rest breaks from their job. One of the requirements is to give them a 20-minute uninterrupted break away from their workstation during their working day when they work for more than six hours.
If your staff take longer than they are entitled to on their rest break, you may take disciplinary action against them. However, this would typically be appropriate where they have done so repeatedly and where informal action has not worked.
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