Motion 74
Rest Breaks in Midwifery
“That this Congress notes that workers have a legal right to an uninterrupted 20-minute rest break during the workday if they work over six hours. That break should be uninterrupted, away from your workstation, and taken during working time, not taken at the beginning or end of the day or overlap with rest.
“Working without breaks risks increasing fatigue in an already busy workplace, which all increase the risk of making errors. It is the employer’s legal duty, even if individuals want to work extra hours or prefer certain shift patterns for social reasons, because fatigue results in slower reactions, reduced ability to process information, memory lapses, absent-mindedness, decreased awareness, lack of attention, underestimation of risk, and reduced coordination. While the Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions Handbook (Scotland) states that breaks are a minimum and where work requires exceptional concentration, adequate breaks are part of the duty to protect the employee from fatigue. The reality is that this all requires the right number of staff. Midwives would be breaching their duty of care if they left a woman unattended, so short staffing means the midwife suffers.
“Congress notes that midwives report missed breaks, extra hours worked and being called in after a shift to cover care and therefore breaching their 11-hour break and further compounding fatigue. In a 2024 RCM poll, 82% of midwives worked extra unpaid hours beyond their shifts, with 75% feeling not safely staffed in the workplace, with staffing being the biggest impact on whether midwives would stay.
“Congress calls on the General Council to:
- lobby government to ensure that there are adequate staff to enable midwives to have breaks at work; and
- ensure that public services are called to account for missed breaks which jeopardise safety for all.”
Mover: Royal College of Midwives (RCM)
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