Posted By Barry Cooper Can someone please provide me with the definition of a "rest break" (20 minutes in 6hr period)in relation to the Working Time Regulations. An employee who operates a machine is not given the opportunity to have a "rest break", as his employer says that during his work on the machine, whilst the machine is operating in automatic, which can be for between 10 - 20 minutes, the operator has nothing to do but watch the machine, so he has enough rest breaks, and he can have his lunch during this period. After this time he then sends 10-15 minutes resetting the machine, or If the machine then malfunctions during the automatic cycle the operator then has to rectify it. I believe these are not "rest breaks". Opinions please Barry

Posted By The toecap I believe breaks can be defined as disposable time. In other words. hpw the operatives is allowed to dispose of their time, in their own way. Within reason of course. And not be forced to do other duties i.e monitoring a machine