Not allowed a break despite working 6.5 hours today

[MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig]

I help out in a shop. I’ve posted on here recently about their shenanigans.

I get in at 9:45am on a Sunday to get the shop ready. We open at 10am. We close at 4pm. We clear up and leave at 4:15pm. Apparently we’re not supposed to have a break. Despite the law saying I’m entitled to a 20 minute break if working more than six hours.

Before I say anything could someone please confirm whether I’m right or not? Have I misinterpreted the law?

Have you raised this with your Manager as no one should work those hours without some form of a break. Paid or unpaid.
You need to be able to eat your lunch.
Legally it’s 29 minutes for 6 hours work.

Completely agree with @spookyspaghetti.
Utter madness! There are employment laws in this country that apply to all, although this appears to be news to some people posting. 😵‍💫

No, the law states it has to be at least one uninterrupted break of at least 20 mins, it can’t be two lots of ten minutes.

It was a manager that rang me today to query it.

Legally it's 20 minutes if you work more than 6 hours

Yes, it was 6.5 hours. Not much more admittedly but the point stands.

What a ridiculous question. Maybe Op wants to eat lunch, have a drink, go to the toilet etc. Like anybody working over 4 hours would expect and be entitled to.

So you think it's acceptable for OP to have to go the toilet and stuff a breakfast bar down her when she's working 9:45-4:15 on a shop floor just so she isn't faint from hunger by the time her shift ends?

Where do you work that no one wants their legally allowed break? Is it retail?

I have worked 6 hour shift many times and it is common people don’t want the official break as it’s often unpaid.

But no I am not saying OP can’t go to the loo! No place I have ever worked has been prison like. I can go to the loo, or take 5 minute comfort break whenever. Just not a 30 minute sit down with cover - no one call on me kind of break.

I don’t know what OPs work is like.

I had a phone call from the head honcho today. Couldn’t have been nicer. Of course I can take breaks whenever I like. As long as the rota time is correct. They would never say we couldn’t take breaks. Obviously no problem at all. Don’t worry about the previous breaks. Etc etc.

Obviously shit themselves when I pointed out that the manager told me ten minutes when the law says twenty and realised that they’d been breaking the law. Obviously don’t want me to take it any further.

I did laugh.

Can’t believe I was so worried about having done something wrong and I was right all along. Just goes to show that sometimes you do need to stand up for yourself.

Might still log it with HR to leave myself a paper trail. Haven’t decided.

Weird

You could ask the person who called you to put it in an email so you have it in writing. If you want to keep a paper trail.

Just to clarify the rules about when the rest break can be taken...

The ban on rest breaks being at the very beginning or end of the day means OP's employer cannot say that she starts work at 9.25 with a 20-minute rest break, or that her working day finishes at 4.35 with the last 20 minutes being a rest break. They could, however, have her take her 20-minute rest break at 10.15 or 3.15. The rest break does not have to be half way through OP's working day.

Just a small update. I’ve left the job. Many reasons, but one I mentioned in my resignation was the apparent willingness to bend the law over break times. My manager answered with a long winded reply but took great pains to point out that I had been offered the option of a twenty minute paid break or a half hour unpaid break.

Well, no, I wasn’t. That was the whole point of me bringing it up. I swear to god they just make it up as they go along and think we’ll blindly believe it.

I’m out of it now anyway. Thank god.