Until the introduction of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR), hours of work were largely unregulated, although there had earlier been specific rules in force relating to the employment of women and rules concerning the employment of children and young people, which remained. The WTR introduced, for the first time, rules of general application limiting working hours and providing for rest breaks and holidays.

Summary of employers' obligations under WTR

• To take all reasonable steps in keeping with the need to protect workers health and safety to ensure that each worker's average working time (including overtime) does not exceed 48 hours per week
• To take all reasonable steps, in keeping with the need to protect health and safety, to ensure that night workers' normal hours of work do not exceed eight hours per day on average
• To ensure that no night worker doing work involving special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain works for more than eight hours per day
• To ensure that all night workers have the opportunity of a free health assessment when starting night work and at regular intervals thereafter
• To transfer a night worker to day work where possible, if a doctor advises that the night work is causing health problems
• To give workers "adequate" rest breaks where the pattern of work is such as to put their health and safety at risk, in particular where work is
• To keep and maintain records showing whether the limits on average working time, night work and provision of health and safety assessments are being complied with in the case of each worker
• To allow workers the following rest periods unless they are exempt, in which case compensatory rest will usually have to be given
  • 11 hours' uninterrupted rest per day;
  • 24 hours' uninterrupted rest per week (or 48 hours uninterrupted rest per fortnight); and
  • A rest break of 20 minutes when working more than six hours per day
• To allow workers 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year (equivalent to 28 days for a full-time worker), with pro rata entitlement for part-time workers.
• Many of the rights granted by the WTR can be waived or varied by an individual, workforce, or collective agreement. For example, individual workers have the right to "opt out" of the 48-hour limit on average working time.

Workers covered by WTR

The WTR only protect "workers", defined as all those working under:

• A contract of employment; or
• Any other contract whereby the individual undertakes to perform personally any work or services for the other party to the contract, where the other party is not by virtue of the contract a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual.

This includes employees, temporary workers and freelancers, but not the self-employed genuinely pursuing a business activity on their own account.