work breaks

[daffodiltulip]

if, after a lunch break, you only work a further four hours, can the company insist you take an unpaid tea break?

[diggernotdreamer]

I think the law is you must take a 10 minute break every four hours, paid or unpaid

[doofaloofa]

But if the shift is four hours long, surely the break can be taken when you have finished work any way?

BOOM!

No loss of pay

STICK IT TO THE MAN!!!111

[Green Aura]

Count yourself lucky if they're trying to give you a break - it's a rarity.

[daffodiltulip]

You have to take breaks during the work period, not at the start nor at the end. Also, as it is unpaid break and only during four hours that we have to spend there, can they make us take the break or can we put in and get paid for the extra fifteen minutes, which is really my main point. Why should we spend fifteen minutes in the workplace not getting paid when we could carry on with the work and get paid for it?

[doofaloofa]

i suppose it's so you are less likely to have an accident whilst working due to fatigue

If your employers are intransigent and know the regs you will probably have to kow tow unless you unionise and impose communal negotiation

[ina]

One job I worked in recently, my manageress told me that rules about breaks during working hours didn't apply when you were working on your own. Does anybody know about this?

[harðfiskur]

You have to take breaks during the work period, not at the start nor at the end. Also, as it is unpaid break and only during four hours that we have to spend there, can they make us take the break or can we put in and get paid for the extra fifteen minutes, which is really my main point. Why should we spend fifteen minutes in the workplace not getting paid when we could carry on with the work and get paid for it?

coffee, smoking, glass of water, toilet, checking updates on phone, resting eyes and body, chat with collegues, stretching your legs etc etc

[doofaloofa]

One job I worked in recently, my manageress told me that rules about breaks during working hours didn't apply when you were working on your own. Does anybody know about this?

how do you mean?

Solitarilary, but employed by some one else

Or self employed

though my guts says ruminant poop

[ina]

though my guts says ruminant poop

That's what my gut said, too...

I was working in a local paper shop - only one shop assistant on duty most times, so quite often you were there on your own for 6 hours or more. Loo break? Well, wait until nobody is in the shop and then pee really quickly... One day it was so bloody hot in the shop that I almost fainted. (It was after that they told me how to open the back door, to get a bit of air in.) I left that job when the manageress wanted to introduce piped radio (which I hate) and asked us members of staff to contribute to the cost...

[doofaloofa]

it's up to the management to organise relief so that lawful entitlements to breaks can be met

Glad you don't work there now

[ina]

it's up to the management to organise relief so that lawful entitlements to breaks can be met

Glad you don't work there now

Yeah - but I could do with the extra money!

[Flo]

And that shop and the manageress was relying on people like you ina to take whatever conditions she thought fit!

[ina]

And that shop and the manageress was relying on people like you ina to take whatever conditions she thought fit!

Yes - but I'm sure this is no exception. Do you know how difficult it is to get a job - any job - when you are a middle aged woman? You get offered piddly part time jobs, which you can't combine to get a sufficient income, because everybody "needs" you to be available 24/7. This job had the advantage that they accepted I had another job which came first. Now I'm left as before, with not enough money to live. And whatever other job I apply for, I don't even get an interview, no matter how well qualified I am, and no matter how many skills I bring along. Although nobody says it, they don't want anybody who's "too old" (I'm 58), or who hasn't done exactly this kind of job for the past 5 years - they think anybody over 40 can't learn new tricks. So yes, bosses like that one can take any advantage they like.

I absolutely hate all that discussion on the news that we'll all have to work longer... I'd love to work until I drop dead - if somebody gave me the chance! (There is, of course, the option of dropping dead earlier... Solves a lot of problems.)