The Working Time Regulations, 1998

These Regulations protect workers from being forced to work excessive hours. They also make the provision of paid annual leave mandatory, and include rights to rest breaks and uninterrupted periods of rest. We provide a summary of the regulations.

The Regulations apply to "adult workers" (over 18) and to "young workers" (over compulsory school age), and some of the detailed provisions are slightly different for each of these two groups. There are exceptions to some of the Regulations, primarily for employees working in transport (air, road, rail, sea etc.), sea-fishing, work at sea, doctors in training, certain activities of the armed forces, police and civil protection workers.

The Regulations state that:

Working hours

• A worker's working time, including overtime, must not exceed an average of 48 hours in each 7 days
• If the worker claims this right not to exceed the 48 hours, then he must not suffer any detriment because of it (such as reduced chance of promotion, for instance) 
• A worker can agree, if he or she wishes, to work longer than 48 hours per week, but this agreement should be made in writing with the employer 
• Employers are obliged to keep records of the hours worked

Night work

• Normal hours of work, for night workers, shall not exceed an average of 8 hours for each 24 hours. (The average is measured over a reference period of 17 weeks). 
• If the night work involves "special hazards" or heavy physical or mental strain, then this limit is reduced to 8 hours worked in any 24 hour period

Daily rest periods

• Adult workers are entitled to a rest period of not less than 11 consecutive hours in each 24 hour period worked
• This is increased to 12 consecutive hours for young workers 
• This rest period may be interrupted for certain types of work where the activities are split up over the day (or are of short duration) 
• Where an adult worker's daily working time is more than 6 hours, he or she is entitled to a rest break (of at least 20 minutes) 
• For young workers this is extended to 30 minutes for 4.5 hours working time

Weekly rest periods

• Adult workers are entitled to at least 24 hours uninterrupted rest in each 7 day working period
• As an alternative the employer may choose to provide either:
  • Two rest periods of 24 hours in each 14 day period worked, or 
  • One 48 hour rest period in each 14 day period 
• Young workers are entitled to a 48 hour rest period in each 7 day working period

Annual Leave

Workers are entitled to at least 3 weeks leave per year (extended to 4 weeks from the 23rd November 1998).

They shall be paid at the rate of a week's pay for each week of leave.

For more information contact Sally Wearing.