Your rights when working in the UK

How many hours should you work and when are you allowed breaks?

There are legal frameworks in place to protect UK employees. This includes allowing regular breaks and setting a limit on the maximum number of hours worked. It’s up to you to keep an eye on these rules and to make sure your employer is not breaking them.

Legal maximum working hours

According to UK law, you can’t work more than 48 hours a week on average (over 17 weeks), as outlined in the ‘Working Time Directive’. For those under the age of 18, legal UK working hours are lowered to 40 hours a week – or eight hours a day.

However, you can choose to opt out of the 48-hour week and work more hours if you want to.

In some cases, it’s not possible to stick to these rules, such as in the following scenarios:

• If you’re in the Armed Forces, emergency services or police or you work in security or surveillance
• You are a domestic servant in a private household
• You are a seafarer, sea-fisherman or you work on vessels on inland waterways
• If you’re in control of your hours – for example, you’re a managing executive or you are self-employed

Breaks and rest periods

Anyone aged 18 or over is entitled to three types of break at work:

• Rest breaks during working hours
• Daily rest between shifts
• Weekly rest days.

These breaks do not have to be paid. Some employees will have longer breaks if their contract allows them to.

Rest periods for UK employees:

Night work regulations

If you work at least three hours between 11pm and 6am you are a ‘night worker’. You can agree different overnight hours with your employer but if it’s at least seven hours and covers midnight to 5am you still fall into this category.

Night work does not guarantee a higher rate of pay. You must be paid at least the Minimum Wage. You can’t work more than an average of eight hours in a 24-hour period.

People aged 16 or 17 are not allowed to work between midnight and 4am. Normally they cannot work between 10pm and 6am but this can be changed and there are exceptions for certain jobs and industries.

Overtime rules

UK overtime rules state that you can’t work more than 48 overtime hours per week. If you do want to do more overtime hours, you will need to agree to this in writing with your employer.

Common employee benefits in the UK

Your employer may offer a range of benefits you can take advantage of. Common benefits include pension contributions and annual leave but you may also be able to access private healthcare.

You should be told what benefits are available to you when you start a new job. If you’re unsure you can always look in your contract or check with the human resources (HR) department.

Health insurance

You may be able to sign up to a health insurance scheme through your work. This is usually discounted, so it will be cheaper than if you signed up on your own.

These schemes are a perk for employees but benefit employers because staff are off sick for fewer days.

How the scheme works will depend on your employer and the insurer. Usually you will pay a small amount (or sometimes nothing) and in exchange have access to a private health insurance plan. You may be able to add other members of your family onto this too.

Pension schemes

By law if you work for a company you must be signed up to a pension scheme. Your employer will make a contribution to the pension and you will too. You can decide how much you put away. Often employers will match your contribution but sometimes they will put in more.

This comes under the auto-enrolment pension scheme, set up in 2012. You have to opt out of the scheme if you don’t want to use it.

Annual leave

Most workers get 5.6 weeks of paid holiday leave every year. This is also called statutory leave entitlement or annual leave.

The following workers are all included in this rule:

• Agency workers
• Workers with ‘irregular hours’
• Workers who have periods of at least a week in a leave year where they do not work and are not paid

Your annual leave entitlement may include bank holidays. Many companies offer more days’ holiday to their staff than the minimum by law.

Sick leave

By law if you are unwell and can’t work, you can be paid Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) of £116.75 per week. It can be paid for up to 28 weeks.

Tax and National Insurance will be taken off this amount. It is paid monthly, in the same way you receive your regular wages. Sick pay rules state that it can be paid after you’ve been ill for three days in a row.

You may get more than this if your employer has a more generous scheme in place. Some companies pay full pay for a set period and then half pay.

Life insurance

Many companies offer what’s called death-in-service insurance. It is a type of life insurance that usually pays out four times a person’s annual salary if they die while they are employed. If you earn £30,000 per year, for example, a payment of £120,000 could be paid.

It’s usually free to join and you will have to nominate someone to receive the money if you die while you’re employed by the company. 

Maternity and paternity leave

There are a few different maternity and paternity leave schemes in place. These are the basic amounts you are entitled to but your employer may offer a more generous package.

Maternity leave in the UK

Statutory paternity leave is two weeks in the UK. These can be taken together or as two separate weeks. It is paid at the lower amount of £184.03 per week or 90% of your average weekly earnings.

Shared parental leave is also available. This allows partners to share the leave period after a baby is born or adopted. It is paid at the same rate.

Remote working and flexible working arrangements

Every employee has the right to ask for flexible working. Many office-based companies offer this automatically to improve staff work-life balance. How it works will depend on the type of work involved.

Remote working benefits can include being around for childcare or other caring needs and also reducing the amount of time staff spend commuting.

The flexible working rules state that someone can ask for a change to the following, from the first day in a job:

• The number of hours they work
• When they start or finish work
• The days they work
• Where they work

Employers can only refuse these requests if there is a good business reason for doing so. There are full details in the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas)’s code of practice on flexible working requests.

Training and development opportunities

Many companies will offer to pay for their staff to go on training courses. This is a benefit to the company, as it means they will have more skilled workers who will stay for longer. It’s also a benefit to workers as it means they’re able to enhance their skills and can access these training courses for free (or at a low cost).

Impact of Covid-19 on working practices

Covid-19 changed the way many people work. It increased flexibility in many offices and has meant more people can now work from home. In 2010 around 3% of people were working from home all the time. By October to December 2020 this had risen to 10%, according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Health and safety considerations

Employers must follow certain rules when it comes to Covid-19. If a person is defined as ‘clinically extremely vulnerable', for example, steps must be put in place to keep them safe. There is a list on gov.uk of who this applies to.

If a job can be done from home but someone isn’t allowed to, this could be seen as disability discrimination, according to Citizens Advice. If a job can’t be done from home, it must be safe for a person on this list to go into work.

If someone can’t go in, they may need to get a sick note from their doctor and be paid Statutory Sick Pay. If this is the case you should also check what other benefits you may be entitled to, such as Universal Credit.

Rights and responsibilities

You have statutory employment rights when you’re at work and your employer has responsibilities to keep you and everyone else safe. If something isn’t right, and you think you’re being unfairly treated, you can make a complaint or even take an employer to court. 

Know your rights

If you think your employer has treated you unlawfully, you have rights, as outlined in the Employment Rights Act. You could make a claim to an employment tribunal. This kind of behaviour could be one of the following:

• Unfair dismissal
• Discrimination
• Breach of contract
• Unauthorised deductions from your pay

Employment tribunals are independent. They will listen to your claim and ask for a response from your employer. The tribunal will then decide an outcome, which could be paying out compensation if you’ve had a financial loss because of what has happened.

You usually have to make a claim within three months of your employment ending or the problem occurring.

You can make the claim through ACAS. There are more details about how this works on its website. Many people choose to join a trade union as unions will often provide advice and take legal action for you. If there are enough union members in a workplace, the union might negotiate with the management for terms and conditions that are better than the minimum.

Working rights: A summary

There are strict rules employers must stick to. If they fall foul of these, they can be taken to court. These are in place to keep workers safe and to make the relationship between employers and employees work better.

Any extra perks on offer – such as pension contributions, health insurance or paid-for training courses – are a nice extra that can boost your income, keep you in good health and enhance your skill set.

If you’re unsure what you could be benefiting from, ask your employer and they should let you know what’s available and how to get your hands on it.