5 hour 45 minutes shifts to get around 6 hours break entitlement rule

74jax

setu_desai02 wrote: »

Thanks and Yes I know its simple and may be I am overthinking it but that is the problem. They could have simply assigned 10am-4pm shift for today instead of 10:15am-4pm. They would have paid the same (actually less 5minutes) money and the employee would have had the deserved break


I was just trying to explore ways (if any) in which I can help my partner through this.

But he wouldn't have been given a break for 10 to 4?

And you haven't said what you are helping him through so we can't comment on that?

ReadingTim

shortcrust wrote: »

Help them through what?!

The crushing realisation that they're not beautiful or unique, I suspect...

dekaspace

Les79 wrote: »

Well, I worked in a call center which regularly did this sort of thing. We used to deliberately put people on shorter shifts (4 and 4.5 hours) which meant no break entitlement because we simply couldn't afford to have them not taking calls for 30 minutes (break) in the middle of their shift.

They also used to ask for overtime to meet the 5 hour threshold (which is when we gave breaks), but those were usually declined for the above reason.

Really not great like, but that is sadly how businesses are being run right now. Ashley is just cutting corners to the absolute extreme (reflected in his treatment of NUFC too) but he is playing the system fairly well.

Has the law changed, I wondered as I heard things like your example recently but when I last worked at a call centre admittedly 10 years ago I remember the law being if you worked with computers thus a call centre job qualified you had to have a break every 2 hours 45 minutes due to the effects of a pc i.e headaches, dizziness


Unless they got around that by claiming the change from CRT to LCD made a difference!

anamenottaken

dekaspace wrote: »

Has the law changed, I wondered as I heard things like your example recently but when I last worked at a call centre admittedly 10 years ago I remember the law being if you worked with computers thus a call centre job qualified you had to have a break every 2 hours 45 minutes due to the effects of a pc i.e headaches, dizziness


Unless they got around that by claiming the change from CRT to LCD made a difference!

That wasn't the law and it wasn't in relation to the Working Time Regulations.

What you are writing about is possible good practice regarding Display Screen Equipment regulations. However, it didn't have to be a break but just not looking at the screen and refocusing on a distant object for a short while or standing up for a minute or doing something else (like printing a document or photocopying).

kay0601

Where i work we are encouraged to take 5 minutes to refocus every hour to comply with DSE regulations

System

My old place used to do this. First of all there would be breaks mid shift, then breaks would get pushed to the end, didn't take them too long to realise that if they shortened the end of the shift by the same amount as the break time by law they wouldn't need to pay.

General_Grant

andydownes123 wrote: »

My old place used to do this. First of all there would be breaks mid shift, then breaks would get pushed to the end, didn't take them too long to realise that if they shortened the end of the shift by the same amount as the break time by law they wouldn't need to pay.

But they didn't have to pay for the break if it was mid-shift.

And it was never meant to be that the break would be near the beginning or end of a shift.

Morgan44

I work on a huge construction site , during the hot summer months the drivers of 50 ton dump trucks that travel for miles through the site work for 5 hours before being allowed a break. And they wonder why people get killed in the industry!