Friend has one 45 min break per day?

buel

Hi all.
My friend works 9am to 5.30pm and only gets one 45 minute break at 1pm.

Is this the 'norm' and is it legal?

marybelle01

The right is for one 20 minute break once in any shift over 6 hours.

166million

Sounds normal to me

19lottie82

Yes perfectly normal and legal. Sounds like she gets quite a good deal actually, I work 8 - 430 and only get a 30 minute break and got the same in my previous job.

Notmyrealname

Your friend is getting 25 minutes more than the legal requirement.

Millionaire

She should thank her lucky stars it is not 20mins.

Lith

I have 10 min for breakfast and 60 min for lunch on a 10 hour shift.

6am - 4pm


lovely jubbly

TEDDYRUKSPIN

The above is correct but is it paid? Some people have shorter breaks but are paid. Others have 1 hour breaks but it is not paid.

The legal stuff quoted by the others above are correct.

TrickyWicky

Generous if you ask me. You're only legally entitled to one 20 minute break for every 6 hours worked. 45 minutes is over double the legal requirement.

In my last job we worked 12 hour shifts and were not even given a lunch break. Granted half the shift was sat on our backsides in the office but we were still 'on duty' as there had to be someone there for the customers 24/7 so you couldn't just go down the shop or out for lunch unless you had special permission and that was incredibly rare. In all the time I was there I managed to get out for lunch 5 times and those were only because I had medical appointments or had to get something done urgently. They'd find any excuse to keep you onsite.

To add to that, they didn't give us our contracts so we had no idea what we were legally being paid per hour yet they told us as a "gesture of good will" they were paying us during our lunch.

45 minutes of 'you time' is very good. I certainly wouldn't complain or quibble about it.

anamenottaken

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Generous if you ask me. You're only legally entitled to one 20 minute break for every 6 hours worked. 45 minutes is over double the legal requirement.

As mentioned by another poster, the legal entitlement is to 20 minutes if the shift is over 6 hours. It is not 20 minutes every 6 hours. A shift could last 12 hours or more and still the entitlement would be to one 20-minute break. (I'm not saying that would be sensible but it is the law.)

ohreally

The legal minimum is not aspirational.