To think these working hours are unusually high?

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8.30am to 6.30pm with no specified breaks? These seem very long to me, Aibu?

www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workingtime.htm

You would have to have an hour lunch break during those hours and that would still be a nine hour day! For contracted hours I would be expecting a very good salary for that. Where is work it's 9 - 5.30 with a half hour lunch and I thought we had it hard

I do 8-7, no breaks as no one else here

Artandco That is illegal.

Kelly- no it isn't as I work in a private household

I do 7-7 no breaks, and have to eat on the job.

Doesn't matter. You are entitled to a 20 minute paid break for every 6 hours you work.

My dh does similar hours as a GP. More, in fact. He did a 95 hour week last week and it gearing up to be the same this week (left work at 1:15 am this morning having started at 8:45).

What industry? I'm in hospitality and regularly work 'afd's...all fucking day 9am to midnight with no relief manager. I get 20 minutes to wolf down a breakfast/lunch/dinner combination during this time. Unfortunately this is the norm, the only time I got regular specified breaks was when I was pregnant, and I had to wait for it to get 'too much' before they were enforced. It's just the way it is for that industry, always makes me laugh that I'd complain about lack of breaks when I worked a 35 hour week (with unpaid hour lunch)!

The hours themselves aren't long but there should definitely be a couple of breaks built in.

Oh, I remember AFDs when I worked on hotels. A 16hr shift with no breaks (lucky to get to the loo) was just peachy.

FWIW you are entitled to breaks but you don't have to be paid (might be wrong) but the big problem is that employers have got the upper hand thanks to the recession.

20 minutes in every 6hours - paid break.

I do 7-7, 60 minutes break broken into three in that time frame. I do 26 hours one week, 48 the next.

36 one week, not 26!

I work 7.30-20.30 with 2 half hour breaks

YouTheCat - according to your link you are entitled to the break but they don't have to pay you for it.

i do 8pm - 8am and have no set breaks. we do sit down for a coffee but still have to be on alert is anyone needs us. We eat on the run as we dont get a full 10/20 mins where everyone is asleep and dont need assistance of some sort.

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

10 hour shifts, no breaks, eat on the go if there is time.

just out of interest how many of us not taking breaks work in the care sector??

Yes, long hours. Is it a regular Monday - Friday job?

For those of you doing longer shifts, are you doing them five days a week?

Minty - 5.5 days a week for me (boarding school teacher) but I don't do this year round, I get 17ish weeks off a year. I often do 60-75 hour weeks in term time so it's a very all or nothing schedule. On average it's probably very, well, average.

oh, and I do get breaks. sometimes very long ones.

Youthecat, it's a right to have a 20 minute break every 6 hours, but unless it says otherwise in your job contract, it's unpaid. I've worked in various local authority and voluntary sector jobs and have never been paid for breaks, but have always been given the right to take at least a 30 minute break at lunchtime. Definitely not paid though

Yes it's five days a week, with the statutory minimum holiday...