New commonsense meals and rest breaks law reflects todays work practices

The new law for meal and rest breaks introduced to Parliament today will let employers and employees legally continue their existing long-standing practices, says David Lowe, Employment Services Manager for the Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association.

“The new law will recognize that modern workplaces are rarely 9 to 5, Monday to Friday operations,” Mr Lowe said.

“The current law assumes everyone has a cup of tea at 10am and 3pm and 30 minutes for lunch at 12 noon.

“Employers have had to hire lawyers to write complicated employment agreements to make sure long-standing practices could continue but still comply with the previous, one-size-fits-all law.

“Businesses that were providing a series of 15 minute breaks who found themselves on the wrong side of the law can now reinstate them.

“Some businesses whose work break arrangements didn’t fit the previous law had to restructure their operations so they did comply.

“A number of businesses and employees simply agreed to continue what they were doing and ignore the law.

“Of course employees should be entitled to breaks and the new law makes that clear.”