Eating Break Whilst Flying on Duty

[HeartBrokenProp]

Dear ALL,

I', not sure if this is the right place for it but here it goes.

I work for a scheduled airline in the UK and was wondering what is the law regarding our rights as Cabin Crew/Flight Crew to minimum Lunch Break or just a break whilst on duty flying?

I used to work in an office and the requirement is that for every 4hrs of work you MUST take a 20min break.

Our turn arounds are 30min and most of the time you don’t get a chance to eat crew food because we have to clean the a/c do security check and the next thing you know the pax are at the door step.

I have gone without eating on sectors and I know that’s not good and even sometimes felt weak.

Some Capt give us a few mins and stop boarding so that we can eat, they then get into trouble with management for being late. Other Capt are just worried about their own a*** to go on time and then they eat their food up front during the flight where we can’t eat at all because there is no time as sectors are short.

I’m looking for some legislation to show to management that air crew must have minimum break during the day and on average I fly 8hrs a day, I need to eat and be watered if only that, after all we are humans too. There is just so much commercial pressure to be on time it’s not good for all of us any more and not eating has to be a safety issue.

It seems that we as air crew seem to have less rights than factory workers!!!

Thank you in advance, all replies welcome.

HBP.

[CosmosSchwartz]

HBP - You're right, we do have less rights than factory workers. If Health and Safety rules were applied to flying as they are in offices and factories all over the country then we'd never get off the ground!

I've never seen anything in print related to crew breaks during a duty. In my (limited) experience you're relying on your captain being strong enough to stand up and say "That's it, we're taking 5 or 10 mins out to eat"

As you say, unfortunately not everyone feels able to do this. Combined with the fact that sometimes we can eat up front during the flight and you can't, all you can do is stress the point to the captain that you really need a few minutes rest and some food. If this doesn't work then put something in your trip report and make sure your colleagues do the same. If still nothing then do you have a union?

[charliegolf]

Six hours.

In law, anyone expecting to work in excess of 6 hours ata stretch is entitled to a break of at least 20 mins.


CG

[Torycanyon]

Could be a Tinder Box waiting to go up, especially after considering the Working Time Directives recently published from Brussells and adopted by the CAA as of April 2004 last year.

The 2000 hours duty limit will certainly put the Cat amongst the Pidgeons. That equates to a working week of just over 38 hours!!! or 154 hours a month. There are Severe Penalties for breaches of this new LAW, including Prison sentances for those who do not comply.

Lunch Break? I Wish!

[Bumz_Rush]

As I understood the law the WTD did not apply to flight crew or doctors. Perhaps the two professions who needed the protection.
Flight Crew are covered by a seperate legislation the FTL as approved by the CAA.
Also the non airline crews were not covered by the WTD, and not covered by the FLT. The WTD did not differentiate between "Public Transport and Corporate"

OR am I wrong......