Understanding employee working rights

Tuesday 3 January, 2012

By Duncan Heaney - duncan@consumerchoices.co.uk

We examine basic employee working rights and show you how to ensure your workforce remains happy and refreshed.

There’s a common mantra you hear in business - to succeed you must look after your customers. That’s true, of course, but there another group of people who must be treated with equal reverence - your workforce.

If your company is to make money - especially at a time when to say the economy is wheezing a bit is hardly overstating matters - you need your employees to work well, work fast, and work hard. But everyone needs some time to relax - even the Energizer bunny needed new batteries every now and then. Employees are entitled, and should be encouraged, to take breaks and holidays, and there is a legal limit on how long they are allowed to work each week. An understanding of basic employee rights can help you make sure they stay focused, alert and committed to your business by taking their welfare into account.

Employee working times

Basic employment rights vary depending on whether the employee is an adult or young worker. Adult workers are classified as anyone 18-years-old or over. People between 16 and 18-years-old are classified as young workers.

As the business owner, you define how long you need your employees to work a week, but bear in mind that it’s illegal to force an adult worker to put in more than an average of 48 hours a week for your business. This average is typically calculated over 17 weeks, so if an employee works longer one week, he or she must work a shorter week over the next 17 to ensure the average is no more than 48 hours.

Young workers can work no more than eight hours a day and 40 hours a week. Young workers also shouldn’t be made to work between 10pm and 6am.

Breaks

All employees in a private business must be given breaks, both during and between working days. Breaks are split into three categories - rest breaks, daily rest and weekly rest.

Rest breaks

Adult workers are entitled to a 20-minute break every six hours. This break must be taken in the middle of the day - it can’t be used to leave early, for example. It also doesn’t have to take place on the same premises and, if an employee wants to go for a wander somewhere, that’s perfectly fine.

Young workers (between school leaving age and 18) are allowed a longer break than adults. For every four and a half hours they toil away, a young worker is entitled to 30 minutes of rest.

As an employer, you can decide when employees should take a break during the day. As long as it doesn’t conflict with their legal rights, there should be no problem. While it’s not a legal requirement to pay employees for rest breaks, many businesses do.

Daily rest

Adult workers have the right to a break of at least 11 hours uninterrupted rest between working days. For most people this is taken overnight on week days.

Young workers get a little more time in bed - 12 hours in each 24-hour period.

Weekly rest

Adult employees are legally entitled to an uninterrupted 24 hours free from work every week. Alternatively, they can have 48 hours off each fortnight. Of course, many businesses don’t operate during weekends, and this fulfils the employer’s weekly rest obligations.

Young workers are required to take two days off each week. It can’t be split up between weeks, and the days must be taken together in a working week.

As an employer, you are responsible for ensuring employees are getting enough rest breaks, daily rest and weekly rest. It can be complicated to schedule, but them’s the breaks.

Holiday

All full-time workers in a private business are entitled by law to take 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year. This is what’s known as statutory holiday, and is calculated according to the number of days the employee works a year. It’s actually fairly easy to work out an employee’s legally mandated holiday allowance - simply multiply 5.6 by the number of days they work.

So, for someone working a standard five-day week:

5.6 X 5 = 28, so that employee is entitled to 28 days off a year.

For someone working two and a half days a week:

5.6 X 2.5 = 14, so that employee gets 14 days off a year

Statutory holiday allowance caps at 28 days, so even if an employee works more than five days a week, they’re not legally entitled to any more than that. It’s also important to remember statutory holiday is the minimum time off people are allowed. Your business can give employees more if necessary - in fact, increasing holiday allowance is a great way to keep staff happy and motivated.

The government provides a handy holiday calculator on its Business Link website. Simply enter the number of days or hours an employee works, and it does the maths for you, making it a useful resource to have to hand.

Bank holiday

Bank holidays can be a welcome day off - they’re a great opportunity to catch-up on sleep, go to the seaside, or sit in a motorway traffic jam for six hours regretting your decision to go to the seaside. Some businesses close for the holiday and give employees an extra paid day off, but that isn’t a legal requirement.

Many employers count public holidays as part of their workforce’s legal allowance. If the employee takes them off, they are deducted as if they were any other holiday. For example, there are eight bank and public holidays in England and Wales, so someone who works a five-day week would lose that many days on the bank holidays, and be left with 20 days to spend as they wish.

Ultimately, it’s up to you as an employer as to how you approach bank holidays as time off.

Authorising/rejecting holiday

If an employee wants a holiday, he or she must give you enough notice. This notice period should be twice as long as the time they want to take off - for example, if someone wants five days off, it should be requested it at least 10 days beforehand. When the request is made, it’s up to you to say yes or no.

Denying a request for time off can be difficult, especially if you’re prone to guilt, but there’s no need to feel bad - rejecting a holiday request doesn’t make you a monster. As an employer, you are well within your rights to turn down a request, provided you give the worker enough notice. The notice period is the same as it is when asking for time off - at least twice length of the rejected holiday.

It’s also possible to write specific rules about holiday into employee contracts. If, for example, there’s a particular period when it’s important they’re around, you can contractually prevent them from being away on those days. So long as an employee isn’t prevented from taking their full holiday entitlement over the year, this is acceptable practice.

You can also require an employee take leave at a particular time, provided you give them proper notice. There are plenty of reasons you may need to do this - you’re entering a quiet period, a worker is overworked or has not used his or her holiday entitlement, for example.

Resources

This guide should provide a broad overview of the key employee rights regarding breaks and holidays, but it’s possible you want more information. Employment law can be complex, but fortunately, the government provides a number of guides to help you get your head round all the rules and regulations.

These guides can be found on the Directgov website.