Adequate rest for mobile workers

Adequate rest takes the place of the defined rest periods (and night worker limits) for mobile workers (WTR regulation24A). This is separate from the provision for “adequate rest breaks” for all workers whose pattern of work is monotonous or predetermined. WTR regulation 30 (as amended) entitles mobile workers to seek redress through an employment tribunal where an employer has refused to allow adequate rest.

Previous government guidance defined adequate rest as rest periods which should be sufficiently long and continuous to ensure that fatigue or other irregular working patterns do not cause workers to injure themselves, fellow workers or others, and that they do not damage their health, either in the short term or in the longer term. It should be ”expressed in units of time” (WTR regulation 24A(3)).