There’s a very live debate surrounding Compensatory Rest in the UK screen industries where the traditional "show must go on" culture meets modern legal standards and a growing awareness of mental health needs of the workforce.
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended) (WTR), all employees and workers are entitled to :
But, these rest break rules do not apply to those who have control over their own working time (known as "autonomous decision-making powers”) such as senior executives and those who are genuinely self-employed.
Some jobs can have different arrangements for rest in some circumstances because of the type of work they do.
WTR regulation 21 recognises that some industries require "continuity of service or production". Screen production often falls under these special cases. So, when a production breaks the 11 hour turnaround (e.g. a shoot finishes at 11pm and starts again at 6am) the business is required to offer a period of Compensatory Rest.
This is not a financial payment (although "broken turnaround" fees do exist in union agreements) but an equivalent period of rest taken ‘as soon as is reasonably practicable’ after the missed rest (i.e. not weeks later or at the end of the contract).
So, if a member of crew misses 4 hours of their 11 hour window, the business must, in principle, provide those 4 hours back (perhaps by delaying their next day’s start time or providing a longer break later) but that can obviously be difficult on a busy production.
Businesses can therefore provide for compensatory rest at the weekend in many circumstances if this is genuinely the earliest it can be accommodated. Because a weekly rest of 24 hrs must follow an 11 hour daily rest it means that in a 48 hour unworked weekend there’s a minimum of 13 hours still available to accommodate the compensatory rest. (This calculation would not work though if the crew member had worked the weekend before and the 48 hours every 14 days rule had kicked in).
While the law provides the floor, bodies like BECTU and Pact have made agreements that set higher standards for best practice. They have agreed that work/life balance is very important and businesses should do all they can to prioritise this. Rest breaks (or turnarounds) should not be broken unless circumstances really do dictate otherwise, and if they are broken, then it is vital crew are offered the time back.
There has been a recent shift toward protecting the 11 hour turnaround break as sacrosanct. For example, under the 2023 Pact/BECTU TV Drama Agreement and the Major Motion Picture Agreement, if a production breaks this turnaround, businesses must pay "broken turnaround" premiums. They emphasise that financial penalties do not replace the need for safety. Businesses are expected to conduct risk assessments specifically for tired crew members, especially those driving home after long shifts (fatigue is a recognised health and safety hazard). Best practice now leans toward a five day shooting week rather than the traditional six, to help make the weekly rest period robust enough to allow for genuine recovery.
We have covered this in other articles, but businesses have a common law duty of care to ensure a safe working environment. There’s not just a legal risk to consider but health (including mental health) and safety issues to prioritise.
Please see our other articles: Duty of Care: Employment in the Screen Sector and Duty of Care: Employing Children and Young Persons.
Calculations (taking into account the WTR as well as best practices set by BECTU/Pact agreements) increasingly include travel time, so if a crew member is working a 14 hour day and has an hour commute, their actual rest is only 9 hours. Best practice would be that if the turnaround is too tight, the business should provide local accommodation or taxis to ensure the crew member isn't driving tired.
In the UK, most commercial drivers are governed by “GB Domestic Rules” which usually limit daily “duty” time to 11 hours. However the screen sector is technically exempt from this limit and this leeway has historically led to potentially dangerous levels of fatigue.
The Mark Milsome Foundation and BECTU now lobby for the 11 hour rest period to be protected as a non-negotiable safety standard.
With the introduction of new measures in the Employment Rights Act and keener scrutiny from the HSE (Health and Safety Executive), the “special case" is wearing thin. Regulators are increasingly sceptical that the costs associated with high end drama mean that longer shoots are necessary. The friction now lies in whether the industry can survive a transition to a model where the 11 hour turnaround is a hard limit and not a negotiable suggestion.
The risks if businesses get it wrong, may include
Build rest into your schedule from the start. Don't plan shoots that assume broken turnarounds are inevitable.
Monitor rest breaks by ensuring that heads of department or executives are supervising the whole team’s working hours as they will have the on-the-ground knowledge of their working arrangements (or depute another person on set to monitor working time) – this should include encouraging crew members to take rest breaks (they can’t be compelled).
Crew members should be reminded that if they decline offered breaks, additional compensatory rest may not be provided later.
Since rest breaks are vital for both legal compliance and the business’s duty of care, any requests made by the crew should be given proper consideration.
Although there’s no legal requirement to keep specific records of compensatory rest, good record keeping will help in responding to or defending any complaints that may arise regarding working time or health and safety obligations.