It checks a week, because two of the three rules cannot be seen from one shift
Every rest break calculator asks how long your shift is. That answers the easiest of the three questions and misses the two that get broken.
Daily rest is the gap between shifts. You cannot see it from one of them.Weekly rest needs seven days to look at. So this takes the week.
The 11 hours nobody counts
This is the rule that quietly fails on a rota, and it fails because each shift on its own looks completely reasonable.
A close finishing at 23:00, then an open starting at 07:00. Both are ordinary shifts. Neither is too long. Together they give eight hours between finishing and starting, against the eleven consecutive hours the regulations require.
Nobody writing that rota is trying to break anything. They are filling two slots, and the gap between them is not a number that appears anywhere on the rota. The tool puts it on screen.
The break is one break, during the shift
Twenty minutes once daily working time passes six hours. Three things about that sentence get missed:
- It is one uninterrupted period, not twenty minutes added up. Two ten minute breaks do not satisfy it.
- It has to fall during the working day, not at either end. Letting somebody go twenty minutes early is not a rest break, and neither is starting twenty minutes late.
- Working time is the shift less the break. So a seven hour shift with an hour off is six hours of working time, which sits exactly on the line rather than over it, and no break is legally due at all.
That last one cuts both ways, and it is the kind of thing to know before an argument rather than during one.
48 hours is an average, not a cap
Averaged over 17 weeks. A single 60 hour week breaks nothing on its own, and a tool that flags it is answering a question nobody asked.
So this tool notes a week over 48 and says plainly that it is an average question, rather than colouring it red. The averaging is a separate calculation and it needs the other sixteen weeks.
And the opt-out belongs to the worker
Almost everyone has this backwards, in both directions.
It is a written agreement, separate from the employment contract, and it is voluntary. An employer must not cause a worker detriment for refusing to sign one, so "you have to sign this to get the job" is not how it works.
And it is not permanent. A worker can cancel it at any time on notice, which is seven days by law where the agreement says nothing, and can never be more than three months where it does.
Under 18 is a different regime, not a stricter one
The numbers are different, which people expect. What people do not expect is that the structure is different.
- 30 minutes break after four and a half hours, not twenty after six
- 12 hours daily rest, not eleven
- 48 hours weekly rest, not twenty four
- 8 hours a day and 40 a week as hard limits, not an average
Most important of all: there is no opt-out from any of it. Those limits cannot be waived by the young worker or by the employer. An adult signing away 48 hours is making a choice the law allows; a seventeen year old cannot make that choice at all.
A tool that treats a young worker as an adult with smaller numbers gets exactly that wrong, so this one switches the whole rule set rather than adjusting a threshold.
Some sectors displace these breaks completely
Some sectors have their own rules that displace these entirely, most notably transport: drivers' hours and the road transport working time rules are a separate regime with separate limits. This does not cover them.
There are also exceptions for certain kinds of work, and a collective agreement can vary some of the reference periods. The tool reports the default position, which is the right starting point and not the last word.
Next to it: the 48 hour average across a full reference period, and the timesheet calculator for what got worked.
Common questions
How long a break am I entitled to?
Twenty minutes, once your daily working time is more than six hours. It has to be one uninterrupted period taken during the working day, not twenty minutes added up across it and not tacked onto the start or the end. Two ten minute breaks do not satisfy it, and finishing twenty minutes early is not a rest break.
How many hours between shifts?
Eleven consecutive hours in each 24 hour period. This is the rule that fails on a rota without anyone noticing: a close at 23:00 followed by an open at 07:00 is eight hours, and almost nobody counts it because each shift on its own looks perfectly normal.
Do I get a day off every week?
Twenty four uninterrupted hours in each seven days. An employer can instead give two periods of 24 hours, or one of 48, across each fourteen days, so a fortnight with both rest days at one end is lawful even though one of those weeks has none.
Is 48 hours a week a legal maximum?
It is an average, not a cap, and it is averaged over 17 weeks. A single 60 hour week breaks nothing on its own. What matters is the average across the reference period, which is why checking one week answers the wrong question.
Can my employer make me opt out of the 48 hours?
No. The opt-out is a written agreement, separate from your contract, and it is yours to give. An employer must not treat you badly for refusing to sign one. You can also cancel it at any time on notice: seven days by law if the agreement does not say, and never more than three months if it does.
Are the rules different under 18?
Yes, and not just by degree. A young worker gets a 30 minute break after four and a half hours, twelve hours daily rest and forty eight hours weekly rest, and has hard limits of eight hours a day and forty a week. The important part is that none of it can be opted out of, by them or by their employer.