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Working Time Regulations is about the maximum hours you work and your holidays. They do not include lunch breaks or travelling between home and work.

If you are aged 16/17, the regulations say you should:

• normally, work no more than 40 hours a week or eight hours a day. The Armed Forces and Merchant Navy are excluded from these limits.

• you must not work for more than a total of eight hours even if you work for two different employers on the same day.
• get a rest break of 30 minutess after 4½ hours work.
• have 12 uninterrupted hours off in each 24 hour period in which you work.
• get two days off a week.
• not work between 10pm and 6am, or 11pm and 7am. Exceptions to this include but there are still conditions that apply:
  - the Armed Forces
  - hospitals
  - retail trade
  - hotel and catering business
  - bakeries
  - fisheries
  - agriculture
  - newspaper or postal deliveries
  - work in connection with cultural, artistic, sporting or advertising activities.
  
  

If you are over 18, the regulations say you should:

• work no more than 48 hours a week. However, you can decide to work longer. This is called opt-out.
  
• Get four weeks paid holiday each year.
  
• Be allowed rest periods.
  
• Get one day off a week.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environmental Services department of your local authority are responsible for making sure employers take Working Time Regulations seriously:

• The HSE covers the following places of work: factories, building sites, mines, farms, fairgrounds, quarries, railways, chemical plants, off shore and nuclear installations, schools and hospitals.
• Your local authority covers health and safety in the following places: residential homes, shops, some warehouses, most offices, hotel and catering, sport and leisure, consumer services and places of worship.

You can get advice from:

Directgov

For more information on 'working hours'
www.direct.gov.uk/workingtime

Pay & Employment Rights Service
www.pers.org.uk

Pay and Work Rights Helpline
T: 0800 917 2368
Textphone: 0800 121 4042
www.direct.gov.uk/helpline

Health and Safety Executive
www.hse.gov.uk
T: 0845 345 0055
M: 0845 408 9577
E: hse.infoline@connaught.plc.uk

Local Authorities:

Kirklees Environmental Services
T: 01484 226400

Calderdale Environmental Health Service
T: 01422 392373

Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
www.bis.gov.uk