Can you be on a smoko and be at work at the same time? 

In a UK case it was heard that Mr Crawford worked as a relief cover signalman at various signal boxes in the South East. All (save one) boxes were single manned. Although Mr Crawford was not always busy, he was required continuously to monitor and to be on call to do things when trains were going through. 

He could in practice, if he wished, take short 5 minue breaks from his workstation which would amount together to well in excess of 20 minutes over the shift as a whole. But on day shifts it was not possible to have a continuous 20 minute break. The employer argued it could aggregate these shorter periods in order to meet the 20 minute break requirement. Indeed, it argued, this was more beneficial, from a health and safety point of view. 

Relying on Hughes v The Corps of Commissionaires Management Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1061 the EAT held that the employer's system was not compliant. In Hughes the Court of Appeal (Elias LJ) said that there should be a proper uninterrupted break from work during a rest period and, so far as possible, that break should last at least 20 minutes. Otherwise it would not be an equivalent period of compensatory rest. It was important that, during the rest period, the worker was free from work. 

Accordingly, as there was no opportunity on Mr Crawford's shifts for a single continuous break from work of 20 minutes, Network Rail were in breach of their obligations under the Working Time Regulations.