Employer - Breaks

mrstewieo

Okay, I work for a large insurance company.

Due to the weather, we have all been working overtime, so I have usually been working 8-5pm to help out.

We answer telephones all day and are at our computer 100% of the time, as I work in claims.

Over the past few weeks, they have been cancelling our tea breaks.

, I was doing 8-5pm, which an hour lunch break at 1pm.

Is it illegal for them to allow us to work for this amount of time a day without breaks?

So, to recap. We work 8am - 1pm without a break, then from 2pm - 5pm without a break. Is it illegal for them to allow us to work 5 hours without a break?

Bunnie1982

No it's not illegal, as an adult worker you have the right to a 20 minute rest break (i.e. lunch) if you are expected to work more than a 6 hour stretch.

Edited to add, you should also take a 5 minute break from the screen during every hour, whether it be a toilet break etc.

The below is taken from DirectGov website

There is no legal limit to how long you should work at a VDU, but under health and safety regulations you have the right to breaks from work using a VDU. These don't have to be rest breaks, just different types of work.
Guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggests it's better to take shorter breaks more often at your workstation than longer breaks and less often, eg a 5-10 minute break after 50-60 minutes continuous screen and/or keyboard work is likely to be better than a 15 minute break every two hours.

firesidemaid

what do your contracts say? i expect that you usually do not get paid for your lunch breaks, but do for your tea breaks, which is why they are entitled to do this.

whether it helps or hinders productivity, only you and they can comment.


as far as i know you are only legally entitled to a break when you work over 6 hours, so it looks ok. if many staff feel the same you could ask to split the time into 2 x 15 breaks and 30 mins for lunch - i expect that is how many companies work, but may be harder to manage.

mrstewieo

firesidemaid wrote: »

what do your contracts say? i expect that you usually do not get paid for your lunch breaks, but do for your tea breaks, which is why they are entitled to do this.

whether it helps or hinders productivity, only you and they can comment.


as far as i know you are only legally entitled to a break when you work over 6 hours, so it looks ok. if many staff feel the same you could ask to split the time into 2 x 15 breaks and 30 mins for lunch - i expect that is how many companies work, but may be harder to manage.

Damn. It's so stressful aswell, on a normal claim your on the phone putting information onto the computer for about 30 mins a time, one call after eachother

And god, I don't even know where my contract is..

Bunnie1982

If you contact your HR department they should be able to provide you with a copy of the company handbook, or if you have an intranet a lot of policies and procedures would be on there to refer back to about this.

Tygermoth

Hi,

I feel your pain.

As a fellow claims handler we also have had breaks magicaly vanish. When our rep brought up being away from the VDU was nessisary for the health of staff.......they removed personal printers and put one single one at the end of the unit so you had to get up from your desk to get your print outs thus removing you from the VDU. (also hailing it a efficancy and eco friendly coup) where actualy it just cant cope, breaks down regularly and the department loses a day while we wait for it to be fixed)

Nice hur.

also we agreed an adjustment to our hours of 9-5 to help out and it was moved to 9 - 530 and in line with 37.5 hrs.. but now we have hit our backlog we were informed yesterday it will not be altered. Hows that for slyly getting an extra half hour out of everyone by stealth using our desire to help out... then spanking us.... grrrrrrrr (no extra pay either)

!!!!ers