Lunch break and IR35

**Dark Black** · 19 September 2007, 12:21

I don't see how they can force you to take an hour for lunch?

You don't work for them, they are just the client. Health and Safety directives state a minimum of 30 mins for a maximum of 6 hours worked.

My current client has a 45 min lunch break for their staff. I take 30 mins.

You don't work for them you work for your company (or brolly).

**Bluebird** · 19 September 2007, 12:23

Originally posted by beermeister View Post

Working on client's site, client has decided to enforce big-company-itus rules on contractors of max. 40 hours per week, minimum 1 hour lunch break per day, earliest start of 7:30am and latest finish of 6:00pm.

Besides really getting up my nose, particularly the enforced 1 hour lunch break, could these poxy rules be construed as being disguised employees and therefore get caught by IR35? My current contract is with an agent and is written such that I was happy with it being outside IR35.

Is it just my pathetic client or does anyone else have these sort of rules to work within?

Any comments on applicability of IR35 in this situation?

I would have no problem with the 40 hours - you should be either being paid by dauly or hourly rate anyway.
Same for start & finish times, as I would guess if this applies accross the company there is no support for you to work outside these hours.
The 1 hour lunch though is one I would argue with - there is a H&S directive which stipulates 30 minutes is minimum for a period on site of more than 6 hours - thats what you should work to.

What I think they are tryong to do is hope that people are so bored that they work part of their hour lunch and they don't have to pay them for it.

I don't think it really affects your IR35 status, but no doubt others will be along to say otherwise [ or not ]

**chicane** · 19 September 2007, 12:33

Max 40 hours per week has little to do with IR35 - it's more to do with the fact that the client has a budget and doesn't want to go over that budget. Unless of course, you want to work hours beyond the 40 for free.

With respect to the constraints upon start and finish times, you need to ask yourself (and your client if necessary) whether working outside those constraints would impair the quality of your work or prevent you from doing any aspect of the job correctly.

For example, if the office is only open from 7:30am to 6pm, and you need access to co-workers or facilities within the office to perform the job, it could hardly be argued that working within those hours was a pointer to IR35.

If, on the other hand, you're mostly operationally independent of co-workers and facilities within the company, the enforced working hours could be viewed as a pointer to IR35.

Don't know about the lunch hour, I'd probably just ignore it.

**VectraMan** · 19 September 2007, 13:34

What's a lunch break?

Unless they're saying the office will be locked or otherwise unavailable for an hour each day, that does sound like an IR35 pointer to me.

**NotAllThere** · 20 September 2007, 15:38

In 1995, I was working for a subsidiary of a communications company in Thatcham, the General Manager locked the doors between 12:15 and 13:15, to enforce the lunch break.

What a prat.

**beermeister** · 20 September 2007, 17:03

Yeah, I'd love to ignore the 1 hour lunch break rule, but we contractors get regularly warned by the client that they can do spot checks on our attendance (we have a swipe card entry/exit system) and cross check with our timesheets.

What the client thinks they gain with the anal rules, they lose out on in contractor productivity - it's a big company so I guess the bosses need something to make them feel important.

Time to give this gig the flick.

**Dark Black** · 21 September 2007, 11:40

My current gig has a swipe card system - however the goods-in door does not need to be swiped in order to exit. I use this door to leave the building so there is no way my finish times can be checked. Not for any dodgy timekeeping reasons but just because I don't like being monitored like that.

**Muttley08** · 21 September 2007, 14:13

Last permy job had swipe in/out....one of the reasons that drove me to contracting. Would walk from a gig with that these days...

Lunch break and IR35