Hours, rest breaks and the working week

Your workers are entitled to regular rest breaks when working. Workers aged 18 years old or over should be offered a minimum 20-minute uninterrupted break for every shift lasting more than six hours. This can be unpaid unless the employment contract provides for the rest break to be paid.

You can decide when your workers take their rest breaks, but breaks must not be at the beginning or end of a shift. Employers must make sure that workers can take their rest breaks. You must also allow your workers any rest breaks they need due to any health condition or disability.

Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016.

Rest periods between working days

Your workers are entitled to regular rest periods between working days, in addition to any holiday entitlement. See know how much holiday to give your staff.

Workers aged 18 years old and over should have a minimum of 11 hours rest between each working day, and shouldn't be forced to work more than six days in every seven, or 12 days in every 14.

Exceptions for rest periods

Exceptions can be made for:

• exceptionally busy periods, based on objective grounds eg Christmas for retail businesses may be a valid reason
• emergencies
• people working away from home

In these cases, rest periods can be compensated for and taken later. However, compensatory rest should be given immediately after the work period where possible.

The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 give all workers a right to 90 hours’ rest in a week. This is the sum of their entitlement to daily and weekly rest periods (6 x 11 hours daily rest and 1 x 24 hours weekly rest). The exceptions allow workers to take rest in a different pattern than that set out in the regulations. The principle is that everyone gets their entitlement of 90 hours of rest in a week on average, although some rest may come slightly later than normal.

When organising rest periods you need also to consider the maximum average working week which is normally 48 hours.

Employers must make sure that workers can take their rest.

Young workers and breaks

Workers aged 16 and 17 years old are entitled to at least 30 minutes' breaks, uninterrupted if possible if they work more than four and a half hours. This can be unpaid unless the employment contract provides for the break to be paid. If they also work for another employer, the time worked in total on any day must be considered when calculating entitlement to breaks.

Only in exceptional circumstances can young workers miss their breaks - and then they should receive compensatory rest within three weeks.

Young workers are entitled to have a minimum of 12 hours of consecutive rest between working days, they must also have two days off every week, normally two consecutive days, and this cannot be averaged over a two-week period. Only in exceptional circumstances can these rules be changed.

Employers must make sure that workers can take their rest.

Read more on employing children and young people.