Do long hours harm your health? UK hours limits explained
Long hours can damage your health. Your employer must address the risks. Here is how to check your rota, protect your rest and challenge unsafe hours.
Finish a kitchen shift at 11pm and return at 6.30am, and you get seven and a half hours between shifts. Less once you count travel and home life. If your rota is making you ill, your employer must assess the risks and act.
- 48 hrs
- usual adult weekly average limit, including required overtime
- 11 hrs
- normal minimum daily rest for adults
- 20 min
- adult break when the working day exceeds six hours
- 55+ hrs
- weekly hours linked to higher stroke and heart-disease risks
What the law says about hours
The Working Time Regulations 1998 set the main rules in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has separate regulations with similar core limits. The protections cover employees and other people with legal worker status, including agency, casual and zero-hours staff. They do not cover genuinely self-employed people.
These are the usual rules for workers aged 18 and over. Exceptions apply; your contract can give better rights.
| Rule | Minimum protection |
|---|---|
| Weekly maximum | 48 hours on average, normally over 17 weeks, across all jobs |
| Opt-out | Voluntary written agreement to exceed the weekly average, cancellable on notice of one week to three months |
| Daily rest | 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period |
| Weekly rest | 24 uninterrupted hours in seven days, or 48 hours in 14 days, which can be two 24-hour blocks |
| In-shift break | 20 uninterrupted minutes during a working day longer than six hours |
| Night work | Usually eight hours on average in each 24 hours, with separate health assessments and no individual opt-out |
| Annual leave | 28 paid days for a five-day working week; bank holidays can count |
One 60-hour week does not automatically breach an average limit. But a care assistant doing 40 hours in a care home and 12 in a bar every week works 52 hours in total. If that continues across the reference period, they need fewer hours or a voluntary opt-out. Tell both employers.
Do long hours harm your health?
A WHO/ILO analysis linked at least 55 hours a week to an estimated 35% higher stroke risk and 17% higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease, compared with 35 to 40 hours. Those are relative increases, not a prediction that 35% of workers will have a stroke. It attributed about 745,000 deaths worldwide in 2016 to long working hours.
The Whitehall II study followed 2,123 British civil servants for an average of 5.8 years. Those working at least 11 hours a day had more than twice the odds of a major depressive episode compared with those working seven to eight hours. That association does not prove individual cause or give an exact risk for other jobs.
Neither finding makes 48 hours a safe target. A care worker doing doubles or a picker switching between days and nights can need changes even when their weekly average is lawful.
Rest, breaks and time between shifts
The usual adult break is 20 uninterrupted minutes during a working day exceeding six hours, away from the workstation. Serving customers while eating is work. You do not necessarily have a right to leave the premises. Breaks need not be paid unless agreed or required by your contract.
The normal daily rest is 11 consecutive hours. Finish at 11pm and rest would normally run until 10am. Weekly rest can cover a fortnight, so seven consecutive working days alone do not prove a breach.
Some shift changes, security work and continuous services allow exceptions with compensatory rest. Your employer should normally make up missed rest. Ask which exception applies and when you will get that rest. An exception is not permission to ignore fatigue.
A 12-hour shift does not automatically double the statutory break to 40 minutes, though safety needs or your contract can require more. See Acas and our rest-breaks guide.
Required overtime counts as working time even when unpaid. Pay entitlement depends on your contract and minimum-wage rules. Unpaid overtime that takes your average hourly pay below the applicable minimum wage is unlawful. See overtime pay and minimum-wage rights.
Nights, double shifts and sleep-ins
You normally count as an adult night worker if you regularly work at least three hours between 11pm and 6am. A written agreement can set a different seven-hour period including midnight to 5am. Collective agreements can also identify night workers.
The usual cap is eight working hours on average in each 24 hours, normally over 17 weeks, extendable to 52 by agreement. Regular overtime counts; there is no individual opt-out. For work involving identified special hazards or heavy mental or physical strain, the normal cap is absolute, eight hours in any 24-hour period in which you do night work.
A ten-hour night alone does not prove an average-limit breach. Exceptions can also apply to continuous services, security and other work. In care, ask which rule or agreement covers your actual job and what compensatory rest you will receive. Get your union or Acas to check it.
You must be offered free health assessments before starting nights and regularly afterwards. You can decline. If a health professional confirms nights have affected your health, your employer must find other suitable work where possible. See GOV.UK’s night-work guide.
On-call time at the workplace counts as working time when you must stay available. Sleep-in pay is a separate question. If you are expected to sleep and have suitable facilities, minimum-wage entitlement generally covers time awake to perform tasks. If you are expected to work for most of the shift, it covers the whole shift, even with sleep between tasks. Get advice on the hours and pay separately.
Some road transport workers, including HGV drivers, have separate rules. Do not assume every app delivery worker falls into that category. See shift work and fatigue.
Example: Amara’s weekly average
Amara, an adult warehouse picker, works 55 hours for nine weeks and 41 for eight. On the standard 17-week period, with no excluded absences, her average is (55 x 9 + 41 x 8) / 17 = 823 / 17 = 48.4 hours. That exceeds the limit without a valid voluntary opt-out.
The 48-hour opt-out and how to cancel it
The opt-out must be individual, voluntary and in writing. You can refuse. Keep any threat to cut shifts unless you sign, and get advice.
You can cancel even if the opt-out is part of your contract. Give the agreed notice, which cannot exceed three months. If no period was agreed, give at least seven days. Keep your dated cancellation.
If long hours are making you ill, act now
Your employer must assess work-related stress and act. With five or more employees, it must record the significant findings. HSE’s guidance covers demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. A workload that depends on everyone staying late belongs in that assessment.
- Keep evidence. Save rotas, messages, clocking records and payslips outside work. Record actual hours, second-job hours, missed breaks, symptoms and who you told.
- Ask for changes. You could write, “My hours are affecting my health. Please assess the stress and fatigue risks and tell me what changes you will make to my rota.” Seek medical advice if you are unwell.
- Use your union. Speak to your workplace or safety rep. Usdaw organises retail workers, UNISON care and NHS support staff, Unite and GMB food, logistics and hospitality workers, and IWGB gig workers. Check representation and support for your workplace.
- Escalate. Raise a grievance stating what must change. Ask a union rep about accompanying you. If your condition is a disability, request reasonable adjustments, such as altered shifts or extra breaks.
- Report to the right body. Weekly limits, night-work limits and night-worker health assessments generally go to HSE or the relevant council. Denied rest, holiday and retaliation generally go to a tribunal. Acas can help identify the route.
- Protect the deadline. Get free advice from Acas or Citizens Advice, or ask your union about legal support. Notify Acas in time for early conciliation. Do not wait for your manager’s reply.
Example: the deadline change
Acas’s pay example gives an initial deadline of 29 December 2026 for incorrect pay on 30 September 2026, but 31 March 2027 for incorrect pay on 1 October 2026. Timely early conciliation can adjust those dates.
Can they sack you or cut your shifts for saying no?
Workers are protected from detriment for asserting working-time rights, including refusing or cancelling an opt-out. Cutting a zero-hours worker’s shifts because they refused can be unlawful retaliation. Keep before-and-after rotas and messages.
Employees dismissed for protected reasons can claim automatically unfair dismissal without qualifying service. That does not protect every refusal of overtime. Check your contractual obligations and which right you are asserting before refusing a shift.
Ordinary unfair dismissal generally still requires two years’ service at the review date. Disability discrimination and reasonable-adjustment duties may also apply to depression or another condition. See work-related stress claims.
Zero-hours, agency, young and self-employed workers
For agency workers, working-time responsibility generally sits with whoever pays you, agency or hirer. The hirer must tell the agency about workplace health and safety risks. Send concerns to both.
A “self-employed” label is not decisive for a rider, cleaner or carer. Control, personal service and the actual relationship matter. Get a status assessment rather than accepting the contract’s label.
Workers aged 16 or 17 normally have an eight-hour daily and 40-hour weekly maximum, with no averaging or opt-out. Their normal break is 30 minutes after more than four and a half hours, daily rest is 12 hours and weekly rest 48 hours. They cannot work between midnight and 4am.
Special rules or exclusions cover some domestic work and genuinely autonomous roles with unmeasured hours. A “manager” title alone is not enough. See our Working Time Regulations guide.
What has changed and what is still to come
The Employment Rights Act 2025 has not tightened the 48-hour limit or removed the opt-out. The Acas tracker gives these Great Britain changes.
- In force: sick pay and records
Statutory Sick Pay starts from day one, without the lower earnings limit. Annual-leave and holiday-pay records must be kept for at least six years.
- In force: Fair Work Agency established
Its published remit does not establish it as the route for every working-time complaint.
- Scheduled: unfair dismissal changes
Ordinary qualifying service is due to fall to six months and the compensatory award cap to go. Not in force at the review date.
In Northern Ireland, contact the Labour Relations Agency for advice and early conciliation, and HSENI or the relevant council for safety enforcement. Most of these reforms do not apply there. See Northern Ireland employment-law differences.
Questions people ask
Do I get paid breaks?
Only if agreed or required by your contract. The usual adult right is 20 uninterrupted minutes during a working day longer than six hours. Serving customers while eating is not a rest break.
Does a 12-hour night shift always break the law?
No. Averaging and exceptions matter, although identified hazardous or heavy-strain work normally has an absolute cap. Have your duties, rota and agreements checked.
Long hours have made me ill. Can I claim?
Illness alone does not establish a claim. Denied rest, retaliation or disability discrimination may give you a route. Get advice on evidence and deadlines. See our stress claims guide.
Is it different in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
Scotland has the same core hours rules. Its separate tribunal breach-of-contract deadline change is scheduled for 9 November 2026. Northern Ireland has separate regulations and bodies; do not assume Great Britain’s deadline reforms apply.
Sources
- Working Time Regulations 1998, legislation.gov.uk
- Maximum weekly working hours and calculating working hours, GOV.UK
- Rest breaks and compensatory rest, GOV.UK
- Rest and breaks at work, Acas
- Night work, exceptions and health assessments, GOV.UK
- Working time rules, Acas
- Stress risk assessment, HSE
- Mental health at work, Acas
- Working time limits, nidirect
- Employment Rights Act 2025, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment Rights Act tracker, Acas
- Tribunal time limits, Acas, updated 1 October 2026
- Fair Work Agency remit, GOV.UK
- Long hours and heart-disease and stroke deaths, WHO/ILO, 17 May 2021
- Overtime and major depressive episode, Whitehall II, Virtanen and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2012
- Tribunals statistics, April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice, 10 September 2026