Hours, rest breaks and the working week

Check if special exemptions apply to your business

There are exceptions to the Working Time Regulations if your workers:

• work a long way from where they live
• have to travel to different places for work

There are also exceptions to cover:

• security or surveillance work
• jobs that require round-the-clock staffing
• some employees working in rail transport
• exceptionally busy periods
• emergencies

In all these cases you should average workers' hours over 26 weeks, rather than 17 weeks, to find their average working week. They are entitled to accumulate their rest periods and take them at a later date. This is called compensatory rest.

In addition, your workers may be covered by other working time legislation if your business is in one of the following sectors:

• air, road, or sea transport
• inland waterways and lakes
• sea fishing

The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations have affected all all mobile workers (except the self-employed) since 4 April 2005. Under the new regulations mobile workers must not exceed:

• an average of 48 hours per week
• 60 hours in any single week
• ten hours in any 24-hour period, if working at night

Mobile workers are not permitted to opt-out of the average weekly working limit. However, they may agree - by collective or workforce agreement - to extend the reference period from 17 to 26 weeks and the amount of night work that can be worked. Read an overview of the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations on the Department for Transport website.

If you are employing young people, you should remember though that there are no exemptions in these industries from the regulations for workers aged under 18. And there are special regulations covering conditions of work for these young workers. See our guide on employing young people

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• The rules about hours of work
• Working hours in a week
• Rest breaks during the working day
• Rest periods between working days
• Managing workers' hours
• Check if special exemptions apply to your business

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