Working time: your hours, your rest, and what your employer has to give you
The Working Time Regulations set real limits on how many hours you can be asked to work, and real minimums on the rest you’re entitled to in return, whether that’s a break during the day, a full day off each week, or protection from working through the night. Most people have never read the regulations that are supposed to protect them. Time spent travelling for work can sometimes count too, and your employer has to keep records of your hours.
Below you’ll find guides on the specific rights, decided cases showing how tribunals have actually ruled, and tools to help you act on what you find.
Where to start
Plain-English explainers, each one a focused answer to a specific question.
Does travelling for work count as working time?
Whether time spent travelling for work counts towards your hours, and why that is a different question from whether it counts towards your pay.
Read the guide → 02The 48-hour week, and what happens if you refuse to opt out
The 48-hour week is averaged, not fixed, and you can be asked to opt out. What happens if you refuse, and how to withdraw an opt-out you already signed.
Read the guide → 03What records your employer has to keep about your hours and holiday
What records your employer has to keep about your hours and holiday, and why a poor record does not excuse hours they already knew about.
Read the guide → 04Your right to request flexible working
Thinking about asking for different hours, times, or working from home? Here's what the law requires from your employer, and what to do if they get it wrong.
Read the guide → 05Your right to rest breaks at work, and what actually counts as one
What actually counts as a rest break under the law, and what to do if your employer's idea of a break is not being interrupted.
Read the guide → 06Your rights as a night worker
The extra limits and protections that apply if a regular part of your working day falls overnight.
Read the guide →Work out your next step
Generate something you can act on, not just read.
Flexible working letter generator
Generate a letter for your flexible working request. Three letter types cover making the request, appealing a refusal, and challenging a badly handled process, with the first one free.
Open tool →What the tribunals have decided
Real decisions, rewritten for what they mean for you, not for HR professionals.