Crawford v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd [2017]

The EAT has ruled that the minimum entitlement to rest breaks (20 minutes for most workers whose contract is in excess of six continuous hours in a period) must be at least 20 continuous minutes and cannot comprise, for example, a series of shorter break that could add up to 20 minutes.

The Claimant/Appellant was a railway signalman working on single manned boxes on eight-hour shifts. He had no rostered breaks but was expected to take breaks when there were naturally occurring breaks in work whilst remaining "on call". Although none of the individual breaks lasted 20 minutes, in aggregate they lasted substantially more than 20 minutes.

He claimed that he was entitled to a 20 minute "rest