Hours, rest breaks and the working week

Working hours in a week

Workers aged 18 or over cannot be forced to work for more than 48 hours a week on average. As an employer you can calculate your workers' hours as an average over 17 weeks. When calculating average working hours, you should include:

• work-related training
• travel as part of a worker's duties
• working lunches

However, most workers can agree in writing to work longer than the 48-hour limit. The agreement must be signed by the worker. Download our flowchart to read an example of an opt-out agreement (PDF, 42K) - Opens in a new window. Under the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations mobile workers cannot 'opt-out' of the weekly working time limits. For more information, see the page in this guide on how to check if special exemptions apply to your business.

Working time includes travelling if part of the job, working lunches and job-related training. It does not include travelling between home and work, lunch breaks, evening classes or day-release courses.

Workers can cancel the opt-out agreement whenever they want, although they must give their employer at least seven days' notice.

Your workers can agree to a longer period than the normal 17 weeks over which to average their working hours - up to 52 weeks. This can be especially useful if you run a business with big surges in activity, such as a seasonal business.

Under-18s

For young workers the maximum working week is 40 hours (or eight hours a day). These hours may not be averaged out and there is no opt-out available.

Exceptionally, however, if there is no adult available to do the work and the young workers' training needs aren't affected, they may work longer hours if it is necessary to:

• maintain continuity of service or production
• respond to a surge in customer demand

Subjects covered in this guide

Introduction
• The rules about hours of work
• Working hours in a week
• Rest breaks during the working day
• Rest periods between working days
• Managing workers' hours
• Check if special exemptions apply to your business
• Here's how I manage staff hours and rest breaks

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