Charging for Lunch break

[JohnD]

if the contractor's contract with his employee says he will be paid for non-working time (such as travel to site, or lunch breaks, or days hanging round the office when there is no work to do, or bank holidays, or sick leave, or training days) that is not relevant to what the client has to pay.

The client pays what is in his contract with the contractor. Clients are unlikely to agree to pay for non-working time in their contact, and even more unlikely to pay for it if it is not in their contract.

The daily or hourly rate to the client has to take account of the contractor's costs, including pensions, holidays, non-working time, employer's NI etc, which is why the "wages" might be £x per hour but the client's charge rate may be £2x per hour.

 

[^woody^]

Exactly - the client pays the contracted amount.

The OP would have to clarify the terms.

However if say, the contractor is there on site to perform some task taking all day, then its reasonable to assume that the operative would have a break and so the charge to the client would be a days rate - ie all the hours the operative spent on site. This assumes the operative is paid for breaks as per previous post.

Common sense would say that the breaks must be reasonable - its not an excuse to doss for seven hours work one and get paid for eight

And yes the client should also pay for time getting to the site, if thats a cost incurred by the contractor.

All costs, overheads and profit should be built into the hourly rate.

Using a charge of £100 per 8 hour day, whether the OP has an hourly rate to include charging the client for non-productive time (8 x £12.50), or whether he has a higher hourly rate to only charge for productive time (7 x £14.29)- is a commercial decision

 

[D_Hailsham]

I have never heard of a firm paying their hourly-paid employees for their lunch breaks; I know I wasn't. And when I was self-employed for ten years I did not charge my clients for my lunch breaks.

The situation may be different for monthly paid employees, who receive a fixed salary for the month.

The confusion probably arises in the way contracts of employment are worded, e.g: "Hours of Work 8am to 5pm with 1 hour for lunch" could suggest that you are being paid for a 9 hour day; but if you do any overtime, you will find that the hourly rate is calculated on an 8 hour day.

 

[bigal993]

Hi Guyz
Ok lets make it clear, wether its lunch break or REST breaks, they are stating there are no breaks shown on the time sheets, now when you work over 6 hours you are entitled to a 20 min rest break, the fact they take that at lunch time is irrelevant, I do pay my guyz whatever I bill in a day for them, I have read up on this as well, and I think if its classed a lunch break, they dont pay but they can be billed for rest breaks ?
Al

 

[chirpychippy]

can I ask a question regarding breaks, I have no contract with my employer and I am PAYE on an hourly rate, my hours of work are 8-17.30 mon-fri. We get a 15min break in the morn and sometimes a 15 min break in the afternoon and 30 min break at lunch and get deducted an hour out of our 9.5hour day? Am I entitled to any paid breaks or is this just the way it is? Cheers