The English Farm is registered and domiciled in New Zealand, and we therefore have to abide by New Zealand employment law. Under New Zealand law as of 2016, the requirements for paid rest breaks and meal breaks are nebulous. Our policy (following the more stringent requirements of New Zealand law pre-2016) is as follows.
Meal breaks
You can take a meal break, or any other extended break, whenever you choose by scheduling downtime or closing unbooked lesson slots. There are no limitations on meal breaks or frequency of extended breaks. Taking meal breaks is at your discretion, and they are unpaid.
Rest breaks
Current law in New Zealand advocates following common practice. We deem this ill-defined and so choose to follow the guidelines of the act that governed breaks pre-2016.
These were the stipulations of that act:
- one 10-minute paid rest break during a work period of between 2 hours and 4 hours;
- one 10-minute paid rest break and one 30-minute meal break (unpaid unless agreed otherwise) during a work period of between 4 hours and 6 hours; and
- two 10-minute paid rest breaks and one 30-minute meal break (unpaid unless agreed otherwise) during a work period of between 6 hours and 8 hours.
You are entitled to manage your own rest times and work them in with your schedule and other requirements (for instance, writing lesson records or preparing for lessons).
In effect, this means that the 5-minute interval between is to be used for rest and for records and preparation according to your own discretion. Please note that for every 4 hours (8 lessons) that you teach, there is 40 minutes of interval. Of those 40 minutes, 10 minutes is your entitlement for paid rest, and the other 30 minutes are paid time for lesson records and preparation.
If you are on top of records and preparation, then you have no other obligations between lessons.