Employment law outlook

Citation

Pitt, M. (2007), "Employment law outlook", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 15 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2007.04415dab.001

Employment law outlook

It seems like only yesterday – although it was actually more than 25 years ago – that all the talk was of how new technology was going to mean shorter working hours and the main concern was how we were going to fill all that extra leisure time.

Ironically, workers in Britain today are taking shorter breaks and working longer hours than for decades. One recent report claimed that employees stop work for an average of only 27 minutes at lunchtime and only one in five workers takes a 60-minute break. Another study revealed that 73 percent of employees work longer hours than they are contracted to do.

Explanations offered include job insecurity, rivalry with colleagues and, of course, increasing workloads as organizations shed employees in the name of efficiency. Employees may be trying to demonstrate their commitment to their role, and to business targets, by working longer hours.

One effect, however, is that employees are often more stressed out and less loyal to their employers. Companies that fail to combat the long-hours culture may end up facing costly tribunals, as employers who impose an unreasonable workload may be liable in law.

Obligations of reasonable care and mutual trust and confidence are implied in every employment contract. Most cases of excessive workload have been claimed to breach the obligation of reasonable care, which provides protection against inflicting psychological as well as physical harm in the workplace. But some employees have claimed that their intolerable workload amounted to a breach of mutual trust and confidence – a provision that aims to protect “the employee’s interest in not being unfairly and improperly exploited”.

Of course, every job brings its own set of tasks, responsibilities and day-to-day problems. The pressures and demands these place on employees are an unavoidable part of working life. Employees are paid to work hard and accept the reasonable pressures that go with their jobs. But these pressures should not become excessive.

Firms should check regularly that their employees are not feeling overwhelmed by their workload. Effective supervision and time-management training for staff could also be needed to encourage more efficient working practices. And companies that have flexible working policies in place should ensure that these are communicated effectively to the entire workforce. But how far do employers have to go to ensure that their employees actually take their rest breaks?

While regular viewers of television dramas and docusoaps set in the workplace could be excused for thinking that employees spend more time on their rest breaks than carrying out the job for which they are paid, in reality, of course, rest breaks take up a relatively small part of the working day.

Workers aged 18 or over should be offered a minimum 20-minute break for every shift lasting more than six hours. Young workers, aged 16 or 17, should take at least 30 minutes if they work more than four-and-a-half hours. The rules cover part-timers, freelancers and agency workers, but not those who decide their own hours, such as senior managers.

Employers can decide when the break is taken, but it must not be offered at the beginning or end of a shift. And during emergencies or busy periods, breaks for workers aged 18 or over can be accumulated and taken later.

Department of Trade and Industry advice on the European Working Time Directive used to be that “employers must make sure that workers can take their rest, but are not required to make sure they do take their rest”. But Whitehall has dropped the second half of this sentence from its guidelines to employers, following a decision by the European Court of Justice.

The court said the guidelines could make workers’ rights to rest breaks meaningless because they do not oblige employers to make sure that workers actually take the minimum rest periods.

This does not mean, as some people have claimed, that employers have to police their employees and force them to claim the rest periods due to them. But it does mean that employers should have policies in place to ensure that workers know about, and take, their breaks.

A legal minefield? Perhaps. But if you find out that any of your employees regularly skip their breaks, it would do no harm to have a quiet word with them. After all, the breaks are intended for their good as well as yours.

Mike Pitt Employment Law Partner at UK solicitors Pearson Hinchliffe. He can be contacted by e-mailing mpitt@pearson-hinchlif.co