You run a contact centre, the client wants cover until 2am from next month, and you need to staff a night shift you have never had before. The moment people start working regular hours after 11pm, a separate set of night worker rules applies to them, on top of the usual working time limits. None of it is complicated, but most of it has to be in place before the first night, not after. This guide is for an operations manager setting up night cover in an office or contact centre, written against the Working Time Regulations 1998 and GOV.UK guidance as they stand in October 2026.
Who counts as a night worker
The night period is 11pm to 6am unless you and your staff agree a different one in writing. If you do agree one, it has to be seven hours long and must include midnight to 5am.
A night worker is anyone who regularly works at least three hours during that period. Someone on a 6pm to 2am shift four nights a week is plainly a night worker. Someone who stays until midnight once a month to cover a system migration is not. The test is the normal pattern of their work, so if you set up a rota where the same people do lates every week, assume the rules apply to them.
The 8 hour average and why the opt out does not help
Night workers must not work more than an average of eight hours in each 24 hour period. The average is normally taken over 17 weeks, or up to 52 weeks if you and your workers agree it. Regular overtime counts towards it. Occasional overtime does not.
This is where managers used to day shifts get caught. Staff can sign an opt out from the 48 hour weekly limit, but there is no opt out from the night limit. A pattern of four 12 hour nights followed by four nights off usually stays inside the average once rest days are counted the way the regulations allow. Adding regular extra nights on top to cover sickness can push people over without anyone noticing, which is why the averaging needs to sit in your rota planning rather than in someone’s head.
Where the work involves special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain, there is no averaging at all: eight hours in any 24 is the ceiling. Contact centre work rarely falls into that group, but your risk assessment should say so either way, because that is how the regulations expect the question to be answered.
Health assessments before the first night
You must offer every night worker a free health assessment before they start night work, and again at regular intervals while they keep doing it. How often depends on what each assessment shows. GOV.UK says it can take the form of a questionnaire written with input from a health professional, which is what most small employers use. Workers can turn it down, but the offer still has to be made.
If a health professional confirms that night work has affected someone’s health, you must move them to suitable day work where you can.
There is a separate rule for pregnant workers and new mothers. If one of them gives you a medical certificate saying night work could affect her health, you must offer suitable daytime work on the same terms, or suspend her on full pay if there is none. Build that into your planning now rather than finding out on the night.
Rest breaks still apply at night
The ordinary rest rules do not change because the shift is late. Workers are entitled to a 20 minute break if they work more than six hours, 11 hours rest between working days and 24 hours uninterrupted rest each week, or 48 hours every fortnight. Watch the changeover days. Someone finishing at 2am on Sunday who is rostered for a 9am start on Monday is fine. Someone finishing at 2am and back at 9am the same morning is not.
Night working also changes nothing about pay law. There is no legal right to a night premium in the UK, though many employers pay one to fill the shift. The National Minimum Wage applies to every hour worked, whatever time it is worked.
Records you need to keep
You must keep records of night workers’ hours that show they are within the limits, and keep them for at least two years. You also need confidential records of the health assessments, and of the dates you offered one to anyone who said no, again for two years. A spreadsheet that totals hours per person across a rolling 17 weeks, alongside a simple log of assessments offered and taken, covers both. If an inspector or an employment tribunal asks, this is the first thing they will want to see.
Night worker rules for agency staff
If you fill the night shift with agency workers, the working time rules still apply to them. In practice the agency keeps the records and offers the health assessment, but you control the rota, so the two of you need to share hours, particularly if the same person also works elsewhere for the agency.
Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, once someone has been in the same role with you for 12 weeks, they are entitled to the same basic working conditions as your own staff. That explicitly includes night work, rest periods and breaks, as well as pay. If your employees get a paid break or a night premium, the agency worker gets it too from week 13.
What to do this week
Before the first shift, settle the night period in writing if it differs from 11pm to 6am, check the rota against the eight hour average over 17 weeks, send out the health questionnaire, and set up the hours and assessment records. HSE’s guide Managing shift work (HSG256) is free and worth an hour of your time if night cover is going to become permanent.
If you need vetted staff for night or late cover in an office, contact centre or admin team, see our admin and corporate staffing page or get in touch with Flamingo Workforce.