Silent Night, Holy Night, All is Calm, All is Restful, isn’t it?

Relax it will soon be Christmas, that wonderful time of year when we all get that well-earned rest, because we shouldn’t get any rest when in work, should we?
I mean just because a boring old contract of employment says the employee should have half an hour rest for lunch when working an eight and a half hour shift, surely we can by-pass that at this busy time of year? Surely it’s ok to tell him or her that instead of eating mince pies they will work a solid eight hours without a break, but then they can leave early instead? Sounds fair enough right?
Well it did to the Employment Tribunal when Mr Grange argued that his employers Abellio London Ltd were in breach of the Working Time Regulations by refusing him a rest break, when they held that as he had never asked for a rest break, he’d therefore never been refused one!
You know the one thing you can be sure of at this time of year, is the repeats you get on the tele, you can always count on the same story being told again and again, just as you can be sure that Mr Grange wasn’t going to leave matters there, he to felt the need to have his story heard again, only to a different audience. This time to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, where, unlike the repeats of Only Fools and Horses, when the same ending is inevitable, a new fool was found, the tables were turned and the fool was now that of the employer! On the grounds that the instruction to work without a rest break could be construed as a refusal, without an explicit request.
In other words an employee is not required to ask for a rest break before claiming to have been refused a rest break!
I bet after digesting all that you need a rest, well no problem just give Howarths a call and one of our specialist and legally qualified team will be happy to discuss.
Telephone 01274 864999 and speak to Andrea or email andrea@howarths-uk.com