The UK's rules on working time, rest breaks, rest periods and holidays are found in the
Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) which implement the Working Time Directive (WTD) that operates at a European level.
TheAdvisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas)says the
Working Time Regulations provide rights to:
Lawyers for the officers insist they are entitled to payments from 1998, when the
Working Time Regulations were introduced in the UK.
Under the
Working Time Regulations 1998, most workers have a statutory right to paid holidays.
"Employers are not required to give 'smoking breaks' on top of the usual breaks required under the
Working Time Regulations 1998," explains Michael Hibbs at law firm Shakespeare Martineau.
Michael Hibbs, chairman of the employment law committee at Birmingham Law Society said: "Employers are not required to give 'smoking breaks' on top of the usual breaks required under the
Working Time Regulations 1998.
The
Working Time Regulations (WTR), the UK version of the European Working Time Directive, have applied to all junior doctors since 2004.
The European Court of Justice reviewed the legislation on working time which, in the UK, is the
Working Time Regulations 1998.
That is simple enough to understand, but numerous issues remain unresolved, not least because the
Working Time Regulations do not mean what they say.
The law on this (The
Working Time Regulations 1988) says that you can bring backdated payment claims but that you must do so within three months from the date that you should have been paid.
The judgments ruled that the calculation of holiday pay based on
working time regulations introduced in 1998 was not correct and must now include overtime and can include backdated claims.