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 break" under regulation 12 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (equivalent to Art. 14 Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 in NI) or "compensatory rest" under regulation 24(a) (Art. 28 of the 2016 NI Order). The Employment Tribunal found that regulation 12 did not apply and that the arrangements were compliant with regulation 24(a).

He appealed on the basis that "an equivalent period of compensatory rest" must comprise one period lasting at least 20 minutes. The EAT has upheld the claimant's appeal, citing Hughes v The Corps of Commissionaires Management Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1061 as the lead judgement: "However, as I read paragraph 54, Elias LJ is saying that as far as possible the compensatory rest must comprise a break from work which must last at least 20 minutes."

The case was remitted to the original tribunal to identify such shifts where the claimant could not take a 20 minute continuous break and consider the question of remedies.
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2017/0316_16_0811.html