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Dean Moore
Member - 1 post
Currently have a part time worker contracted for 20 hrs per week. Due to this she works 4 hour days on average. She is rostered for a 30min unpaid break but she is objecting stating that for that short period she does not want a break. How do I/we stand legally? If she does not need a break by law, am I and 2 other full timers (39 hrs) being descriminated (we average 8 hour days) as we have to take a 1 hour unpaid break whilst she is work for approx 50% of our contracted hours?
Many thanks
Dean Moore
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Jane Byford - Martineau Johnson
Online advisor - 9 posts
Dear Dean
Thank you for your recent query.
Under the Working Time Regulations a worker whose daily working time is more than 6 hours is entitled to a rest break of an uninterrupted period of 20 minutes, which the worker can take away from his/her workstation. Your part time worker works less than 6 hours a day, so is not legally required to have a rest break. However, your full time workers are legally required to take a break.
It is open to you to provide for contractual rest breaks over and above the requirements of the Working Time Regulations. Normally one would expect these to be paid, but this does not necessarily have to be the case. If the employee?s contract sets out the hours she is required to work and she is now objecting to these, she may be in breach of contract for refusing to work to that pattern.
Although there is now legislation protecting the rights of part time workers (Part Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable) Treatment Regulations 2000) and providing that part time workers should not be treated less favourably than full timers without objective justification, these rights do not work the other way round and there is nothing to prevent a full timer being treated less favourably than a part time worker.
Yours sincerely
Jane Byford
Partner
Martineau Johnson
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