Interrupted breaks allowed

Employers who ask security staff to remain on call during rest breaks do not breach the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) (WTR), the Court of Appeal has held.

Under reg 24 of the WTR, security guards are exempt from the entitlement to a rest break when working longer than six hours as long as they are given “an equivalent period of compensatory rest” or other appropriate protection to protect their health and safety.

In Hughes v The Corps of Commissionaires Management Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1061, however, a security guard, who worked 12-hour shifts at Orange in Croydon, questioned whether his break conditions complied with the WTR. The guard remained on call during his breaks. If interrupted, he was permitted to start his break again.

An earlier case, Gallagher v Alpha Catering Service [2004] EWCA Civ 1559, [2004] All ER (D) 121 (Nov) held that an interrupted break should be taken at another time.

However, the court held there was no WTR breach, and that a re-started rest break is more beneficial than a Gallagher break taken on a later shift.

Delivering judgment, Lord Justice Elias said: “The natural meaning of ‘equivalent period of compensatory leave’ is that a break of the same length and the same nature should be provided, although at some alternative time, to make up for the right lost.

“But adopting that construction could frustrate the health and safety objective which the legislation is designed to achieve. Take this case: in practice the period of rest, in the sense of freedom from work activities, could be very significant since the break starts again if the rest is subject to interruption. This is far preferable to an arrangement whereby the appellant were given an additional Gallagher break on a later shift, even if that were otherwise possible.”

Makbool Javaid, partner in charge of employment at Simons Muirhead & Burton, which represented the Corps of Commissionaires, said: “This is a precedent case that establishes the law concerning a worker’s entitlement to rest breaks at single manned sites and represents a common sense approach for employers.”