What Do the Working Time Regulations Mean for an Employer in England?

The Working Time Regulations (‘the Regulations’) are in place to help ensure the health and safety of your staff. As an employer, you must understand the Regulations and how they affect your business. If you fail to implement them in your workplace, you could face potential legal action, such as criminal sanctions and imprisonment. To help you avoid these sanctions, this article explains the Regulations in England.  

What Are the Working Time Regulations?

The Regulations are a set of legal rules which restrict workers in terms of the number of hours they can work every week. Work hours include the time your staff complete work and any training you provide. However, work hours do not include:

• standard time travelling to and from the workplace and home;
• lunch breaks; or 
• time spent on-call unless the on-call period arises during their workday. 

The Regulations apply to most workers, whether they are full-time or part-time, agency or freelance workers. In saying that, the Regulations do not apply to some workers, including: 

• emergency service staff when working on an emergency;
• the armed forces;
• the police; and
• those whose working time is not measured or pre-determined such as those employed by their family. 

What Do the Working Time Regulations Say?

The main rules in the Regulations are as follows:

• your employees must not work more than 48 hours per week unless they agree to work more, which is called an opt out; 
• you are obliged to allow your employees 5.6 weeks minimum time off work per year (their annual leave); 
• within 24 hours, your workers should have one consecutive hour of rest; 
• where your employees work for longer than 6 hours in a row, you must allow a rest break of at least 20 minutes; 
• you must allow your staff at least 11 hours of rest between each working day; 
• you must give your staff at least 1 day off work per week; 
• where you have night workers, you must ensure they do not work for more than 8 hours per day within 24 hours; and 
• where you workers are 16 and 17 years old, they must not work more than 8 hours per day and no more than 40 hours per week.

The Regulations require you to keep records of your workers to demonstrate that you are applying the Regulations correctly. For example, you should record the hours your employee worked and keep records relating to night-time workers’ rules. You should also keep records of the written agreement where your staff may have opted out of the maximum working hours per week.  

Common Mistakes Employers Make

Employers can make mistakes when applying the Regulations. Some of the most common mistakes include: 

• thinking that the Regulations do not apply if an employee has opted out of the 48-hour maximum work week requirement;
• incorrectly calculating paid holiday entitlement for a part-time employee and staff on zero-hours contracts;
• not giving staff the outstanding holiday pay they are entitled to when leaving their job; and
• not allowing holiday pay for overtime work staff have carried out. 

What Are the Penalties for Breaking the Rules?

Breaking the Regulations can carry serious consequences. Some of the potential punishments for not complying with the laws are:

• a fine;
• a notice from the Health and Safety Executive to improve the situation or prohibit it;
• imprisonment for anywhere between three months to two years; and
• paying compensation to your staff for breaking the rules where they take you to an employment tribunal.

Key Takeaways

Every employer should know the basics of the Working Time Regulations (‘the Regulations’). The Regulations contain rules regarding employees’ work hours and their rest requirements. Generally, your staff should not work more than 48 hours per week. They should also have at least 11 hours of rest between working days. However, there are exceptions to some of these rules that apply to different workers. Nevertheless, your failure to enforce the Regulations can seriously harm your business.

If you need help understanding what the Regulations mean in England and Wales, 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.

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