I work in community care starting most days at 7am last shift 9-930pm start again 7am is this legal? -

You are legally entitled to 11 hours rest in any 24 hour period and cannot be required to work more than 48 hours per week. You can exceed this if you wish but your employer cannot enforce it. You may have been given an Opt Out Agreement to sign which effectively waives this law but you can retract your consent in writing if you wish.Acas can provide you with any information you require on the Working Time Directive - http://www.acas.co.uk/index.aspx?article�� or other employment issues.

legally, you should have 12 hour break, so if you finish at 9-9.30 you shouldn t start until 9-9.30 the next day. usually in community care, and other caring professions as well as catering and hospitality you will have signed a contract agreeing to work whatever hours. Even if you don t sign a contract, after 3 months (might be wrong on the 3) you are considered to accept the terms of the employment contract, even if you haven t seen it! for further advice try ACAS...they are up to date on the legalities

I worked in the caring profession for many years. One of my responsibilities was rotas. Whilst i tried to avoid back to back shifts, it wasn t always possible. However, on the rare occasions it presented difficulties for the staff member, a chat to me usually resolved the problem by swapping with someone else.Rather than looking at the legality issues (I am sure the shifts are legal), if you have difficulties, why don;t you chat to your line manager and see if a solution can t be found.An amicable solution is always better than confrontation.Incidentally I loved my job, the residents were great - I teased them and was teased in turn. And when the day staff went home, I still had jobs to do and was invariably on duty before the day staff arrived.

Legally, as long as you have 8 hours between leaving and returning it is legal. I worked those hours for 14 years.