[JURIST] The European Court of Justice [official website] ruled [text] Thursday that Great Britain's rest period guidelines for workers are not in compliance with European Union [official website] law which mandates minimum daily and weekly breaks. Member countries of the EU are obligated to ensure workers receive 11 consecutive hours of rest in every 24-hour period and a 24-hour rest period in each seven-day work period. The court found issue with Britain's guidelines which mandated that employers give workers the opportunity for the breaks, but did not also call for employers to ensure the workers were actually taking the rest periods.

The European Court of Justice issued a statement [PDF] Thursday on its decision saying, "The guidelines are liable to render the right of workers to daily and weekly rest periods meaningless because they do not oblige employers to ensure that workers actually take the minimum rest periods." AFP has more.