You don’t need a break if you’re not working more than 6 hours working time.
You do not need to have a 30 minute break before exceeding 9 hours working time.
The rules for the working time breaks.
No worker should work more than 6 hours without a break of 15 minutes. (commonly known as the 6 hour rule)
So the rule for the 6 hour rule is:
A 15 minute break should start
- No later than 6 hours working time from the start of the shift
And - No later than 6 hours working time since the end of the last break.[/list:u][/list:u]
Total breaks in each shift should be:
Up-to 6 hours working time.
- No break is legally required.
If the total working time in the shift is more than 6 hours but not more than 9 hours.
- A total break/breaks of 30 minutes is required, this can be taken in 2 parts of 15 minutes each and at-least 15 minutes of the 30 minute break should be taken before going over 6 hours working time.
Or (You are legally required to comply with either the rule above, or the rule bellow but not both)
If the total working time in the shift is more than 9 hours.
- Total break/breaks should be at-least 45 minutes and at no point in the shift should you do more than 6 hours working time before having a break of at-least 15 minutes.
- So for the 6 hour rule a 15 minute break should be taken
- No later than 6 hours working time from the start of the shift
- And*
- No later than 6 hours working time since the end of the last break.
[/*:m][/list:u]
Breaks for the working time regulations (RT(WT)R 2005) can be split into separate breaks of at-least 15 minutes each and cannot be taken at the immediate start or end of the shift.
Driving breaks count as breaks for the RT(WT)R and where appropriate breaks for the RT(WT)R count as driving breaks.