Working Time Act
This comes from the dept of enetrprise and employment web site.
Maximum weekly working time
The new maximum average working week is 48 hours. Averaging may be balanced out over a 4, 6 or 12 month period depending on the circumstances.
General
The Organisation of Working Time Act sets out statutory rights for employees in respect of rest, maximum working time and holidays. These new rights apply either by law as set out in the Act, in regulations made under the Act or through legally binding collective agreements. These agreements may vary the times at which rest is taken or vary the averaging period over which weekly working time is calculated.
You are not covered by the rest and maximum working time rules if you are a member of the Defence Forces, the Garda Siochana, a junior hospital doctor, a transport employee, if you work at sea, if you control your own working hours or if you are a family employee working on a farm or private house.
Otherwise, if you are an employee, you are generally covered by the following rest and maximum working time entitlements.
There we go.
We are not covered by the rules that govern the max and min working hours. Management (and IMPACT) would say that they can impose greater working hours and shorter breaks because we,re not covered, but anyone reading that paragraph can see that the opposite is also true.