Employers had a legal obligation, to ensure workers received 24 hours uninterrupted rest time away from work each week, within each 7 day period that they worked or 48 hours within each 14 day period worked (Working Time Regulations 1998). This was subject to certain exemptions. However, the European Court of Justice have now ruled that there was no requirement for an employer to provide a worker with weekly rest directly after every 6 consecutive days of work.
What this means now is within a 14 day reference period a worker can now be asked to work 12 consecutive days. That is provided they are given a weekly rest break of 24 hours at the beginning and the end of that 14 day period.
Emma Cromarty