Rules on break entitlement during work,anyone knows more on this?

[Lord_Kokain]

I work in a bookmaker firm that had the following policy for breaks, depending on the length of shifts:

4 hours or less: no breaks
4.5 to 7 hours: 30 min breaks
7.5 or more hours : 1 hour break

It now changed its policy to make the one hour break for shifts of 7 or more hours. This by itself might seem ok but the nature of the business is such that we are often unlikely to use our full breaks anyway. To begin with, the times of taking a break are undefined and the betting shops never close during the day so if a couple of people work together and one wishes to take a break, this will mean that the rest (which most commonly is just one person as most betting shops have maximum two members of staff at a time) have to bear the workload. It gets even worse if we end up working on our own as there is no one to cover for us and, at the same time, higher management gets pretty bullying when it comes to someone stepping up with the idea of closing the premises for duration of a break (this bullying is a story of its own so I would rather not go into it).

Needless to say, these are breaks that people can only take in the middle of the shift, not the beginning or the end. In that sense, everyone agrees that this move by the company is with the aim of keeping us half hour more at work for the same pay so my question is whether they can actually do that? What stops them, for instance, if they decide to roll another change to this and make it one hour break for all shifts that are 6 or more hours?

Some people are telling me that there is an EU law stating that its only breaks over 7 hours can be an hour long but I can’t find anyone with deeper knowledge or authority to confirm it and, if it is, then the fact that the company does not follow it correctly should surely be a significant breach. What do you guys reckon?

ps - Bookie firms are generally a greedy bunch and, quite frankly, I don’t see myself working there for much longer but I nevertheless made many friends during that time and would like to dig deeper into that issue at least for the sake of helping them.

 

[Gaidin109]

It's generally 20mins for a 6hr period. If you employer is giving you an hour within a 7 hr shift then they are being more generous than the basic requirement allows. Allvthe info you need is here:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/e_rest_breaks_at_work.pdf

and here:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029451

 

[I get around]

If you're entitled to a break you take it, tell your manager to **** off.

I get it at work "Oh we're too busy, you're gonna have to work through your break" or "You mind staying on for 10 minutes?" no, working for free? You must be man.

Legally you must have a break anything over 6 hours. But i'd take the full hour and leave the manager to sort it out, it's their fault for being so tight. Never work for free, are you a slave? No, you're an employee and entitled to pay for work done, breaks and all that stuff. I'd close the shop.

Aside from that, say to your manager you'd rather have the extra money but the bare minimum of break?

 

[MiNxYyY]

At my current place of work

If i work

4hours = no break
4.5 - 6 = 15min
5hours - 7 = 1 hour
7.01 hours - 9 = hour n half

 

[el_dazza]

It gets even worse if we end up working on our own as there is no one to cover for us and, at the same time, higher management gets pretty bullying when it comes to someone stepping up with the idea of closing the premises for duration of a break (this bullying is a story of its own so I would rather not go into it).

Needless to say, these are breaks that people can only take in the middle of the shift, not the beginning or the end. In that sense, everyone agrees that this move by the company is with the aim of keeping us half hour more at work for the same pay so my question is whether they can actually do that? What stops them, for instance, if they decide to roll another change to this and make it one hour break for all shifts that are 6 or more hours?



ps - Bookie firms are generally a greedy bunch and, quite frankly, I don’t see myself working there for much longer but I nevertheless made many friends during that time and would like to dig deeper into that issue at least for the sake of helping them.

That sounds like Ladbrokes or William Hill.. bet I'm right on that one!

Closing the premises during a break? Can you not decide between yourselves when the best time to take a break is? If you're working 10-5, and someone else is doing 12-7 for example, can you not take half an hour at less busy times (before + after afternoon racing, generally) each?

With regards to the hour break, which I assume is unpaid, surely there can't be a limit on maximum time for breaks, only minimum? I know the minimum is 20 minutes per 6 hours of work for over 18's, but with your situation I'm really not sure. Bit of an odd one. Most places do this though, I work 6 hour shifts every day, and our break allowances are:

<4 hrs = no break
4-6 = 15 min paid
over 6 = 1 x 15 min paid, 1 x 30 min unpaid.

My old employers was:

4-5hrs =- 15 mins
5 1/2hrs = 20 mins
6hrs = 30 mins
7-8hrs = 45mins
9hrs+ = 1hr 30 mins.

8 hrs = Actual 7hrs 15m of work, but all 8 hours was paid
9hrs = Actual 7hrs 30m of work, but the hour break is unpaid, so they're getting 15mins out of you for free.

They're not stupid

 

[JBuk]

Take your break entitlement instead of letting them bully you

 

[Gaidin109]

At my current place of work

If i work

4hours = no break
4.5 - 6 = 15min
5hours - 7 = 1 hour
7.01 hours - 9 = hour n half

They are breaking the law with the 15min break if you work a 6hr shift, the minimum is 20mins. Which I see they cover with the 5-7hr part. Seems very strange to have an overlapping system. It must be confusing.

 

[el_dazza]

They are breaking the law with the 15min break if you work a 6hr shift, the minimum is 20mins. Which I see they cover with the 5-7hr part. Seems very strange to have an overlapping system. It must be confusing.

Yeah that simply can't be right. You'll get people taking an hour break for a 5 hour shift which is ridiculous but then you'd have management claiming they only get 15mins. Most bizarre.

I used to work 12 hour shifts most days and get whinged at for taking a 15 minute break.. that was hell I tells ya.

 

[Deadbeat]

Why not split it up? Have a half hour break in the middle of the day, and a couple of tea breaks either side. I'm working for the NHS, and for our current break schedule I get 1 hr unpaid and 2x 15min paid tea breaks for a 7.5hr shift, which stretches it to 8.5hrs, obviously. But for my 12.5hr shifts, I get 2x 20min breaks - that's it.

 

[Lord_Kokain]

If you're entitled to a break you take it, tell your manager to **** off.

I get it at work "Oh we're too busy, you're gonna have to work through your break" or "You mind staying on for 10 minutes?" no, working for free? You must be man.

Legally you must have a break anything over 6 hours. But i'd take the full hour and leave the manager to sort it out, it's their fault for being so tight. Never work for free, are you a slave? No, you're an employee and entitled to pay for work done, breaks and all that stuff.

Trust me,it gets quite ugly when me and a few others had such sorts of clashes. With me,they are simply sending me all over the place while with two other guys they underpaid them quite a bit(they got a bit less than half of what they are owed) and the management plays it ignorant. The thing is, even if you are missing one hour off your payslip, you have to go through a whole sharade in regards to finding out what working time your missing and proving that it was actually worked and then it can only be authorised by the area manager who is extremely hard to get in touch with when it comes to employee matters. To cut it short, they have their ways to get back at you which isnt right.

 

[el_dazza]

Trust me,it gets quite ugly when me and a few others had such sorts of clashes. With me,they are simply sending me all over the place while with two other guys they underpaid them quite a bit(they got a bit less than half of what they are owed) and the management plays it ignorant. The thing is, even if you are missing one hour off your payslip, you have to go through a whole sharade in regards to finding out what working time your missing and proving that it was actually worked and then it can only be authorised by the area manager who is extremely hard to get in touch with when it comes to employee matters. To cut it short, they have their ways to get back at you which isnt right.

Don't you have any form of clocking-in system? No swipe card or anything?

It's William Hill, isn't it, they're a bunch of cowboys from top to bottom

Surely you can use some of the following to prove what you worked:

Clocking-in system
Timestamps on terminals
Fire register
(Last port of call this one) CCTV footage, to prove you were there.

One of these should really suffice, more than one and they can't prove you wrong otherwise.

 

[Lord_Kokain]

That sounds like Ladbrokes or William Hill.. bet I'm right on that one!

Closing the premises during a break? Can you not decide between yourselves when the best time to take a break is? If you're working 10-5, and someone else is doing 12-7 for example, can you not take half an hour at less busy times (before + after afternoon racing, generally) each?

I think our guys are worse at least than Ladbrokes cauz at least they seem to get a second person from about 11am and some of their shops have three in the evening. In our case,you dont get another person until 1pm and the racing is all day long since it includes foreign one like Australian and South African(morning time) and American(evening). It all depends on the individual shop since some are less busy in general so its easier to go whenever u like but some are extremely busy all day long.

Don't you have any form of clocking-in system? No swipe card or anything?

It's William Hill, isn't it, they're a bunch of cowboys from top to bottom

Nothing as such...and its not Hills though I heard they are quite bad too.

Surely you can use some of the following to prove what you worked:

Clocking-in system
Timestamps on terminals
Fire register
(Last port of call this one) CCTV footage, to prove you were there.

Thats provided they feel like proving it since they need to authorise someone to check it and the key people for this are always conveniently too busy to even respond to calls. Trust me, the system is so complicated that even I dont fully understand it sometimes eventhough I've been there for a few years already.

 

[el_dazza]

I think our guys are worse at least than Ladbrokes cauz at least they seem to get a second person from about 11am and some of their shops have three in the evening. In our case,you dont get another person until 1pm and the racing is all day long since it includes foreign one like Australian and South African(morning time) and American(evening). It all depends on the individual shop since some are less busy in general so its easier to go whenever u like but some are extremely busy all day long.



Nothing as such...and its not Hills though I heard they are quite bad too.

True, I went into Hills in town earlier and there was 1 bloke working in there and 2 customers other than myself.

They don't have a clocking-in system? That's shocking to be honest. I assume it's a national firm, not an independant local bookmaker?

 

[Lord_Kokain]

True, I went into Hills in town earlier and there was 1 bloke working in there and 2 customers other than myself.

They don't have a clocking-in system? That's shocking to be honest. I assume it's a national firm, not an independant local bookmaker?

The whole job is so unprofessional in many aspects that lack of clocking-in system doesnt seem surprising to me at all.

ps - its Coral

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Wow my old work place was pretty archaic then. We were only allowed 30 minutes break regardless to whether we worked 7.5 hours or 10.5 hours. No wonder they went into liquidation

 

[el_dazza]

The whole job is so unprofessional in many aspects that lack of clocking-in system doesnt seem surprising to me at all.

ps - its Coral

Can't honestly say I've ever walked into a Coral shop, as there's none around here!