Compensatory rest

Where workers lose out on their rest periods, for example because they are moving between shifts, their rest break is excluded as a “special case”, or their rest breaks have been modified due to collective or workforce agreements, they must be given an equivalent period of compensatory rest. Government guidance suggests that this should be taken “reasonably soon after the time you missed”. In exceptional cases where this is not possible, the employer must give the worker appropriate protection to safeguard health and safety. At European level, unions continue to campaign for tighter regulation of compensatory rest, with clearer rules to prevent any delay in being allowed to take the rest.

In Alpha Catering Services v Gallagher [2005] IRLR 102, the Court of Appeal held that the focus, in relation to the rules on compensatory rest, is on the activities of the worker, not of the employer. Employers cannot, for example, under-staff to avoid giving workers the right to breaks.

In the case of seafarers, where there are separate regulations, short breaks are included within the definition of working hours (P&O Ferries (Bermuda) v Spencer UKEAT/0433/04).