Article
Breaks and penalties: what a late lunch is actually worth
Two breaks a shooting day. Both have deadlines. Both carry a payment when they are missed, and one of them can quietly change your entire day type if it goes late enough.
These provisions are the same on every day of the week, including Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. They do not apply to production managers, production assistants or runners.
The first break
One hour, beginning no more than five and a half hours after work commences.
That is the deadline. Call at 07:00 means lunch should start by 12:30 at the latest.
What happens when it does not:
| What happened | What you get |
|---|---|
| Delayed | £10 penalty |
| Curtailed | Overtime starts earlier by the amount cut, or if no overtime is worked, you are paid the curtailed minutes at single time |
| Missed entirely | The day converts to a continuous working day once 6½ hours have elapsed |
| Missed on a night shoot | Charged at your basic hourly rate |
| No meal provided | A free meal, or £7.50 meal allowance |
One clarification in the terms worth knowing: if the break is missed, it is not also treated as delayed. You get the missed break outcome, not both.
The curtailment rule is better than people think
If your first break is curtailed, overtime commences eleven hours from your start time less the amount the break was cut by.
The example in the terms: if the break is curtailed by 20 minutes, overtime commences at 10 hours and 40 minutes from the start, not 11 hours.
So working through part of your lunch does not just get compensated as an afterthought. It moves your overtime threshold earlier by exactly the time you lost. And if no overtime is worked at all that day, you are simply paid for the curtailed minutes at single time.
The 6½ hour trigger, which is the big one
If your first meal break has not commenced within six and a half hours of the main unit call, the day becomes a continuous working day, and the provisions of section 2.2 apply.
That is not a bigger penalty. It is a different day type, with a different structure: nine hours instead of eleven, and overtime starting after nine hours from call rather than eleven.
On a 07:00 call, that trigger is 13:30.
Two consequences:
It is usually worth far more than the £10. Overtime starting two hours earlier on a long day is real money, well beyond a tenner.
You cannot have both. Once the day converts, the terms are explicit that no late lunch penalties are payable. The conversion replaces the £10, it does not stack with it.
Nobody on set announces this. There is no moment where anything visibly changes. If you are not tracking your first break against your call time, you will not know it happened.
The second break
Half an hour, beginning no more than five and a half hours after the end of the first break.
| What happened | What you get |
|---|---|
| Delayed | Not possible. It is either given or it is not |
| Curtailed | Paid for the minutes cut |
| Missed | Paid 30 minutes at your basic hourly rate |
| Missed on a night shoot | Charged at your basic hourly rate |
| No food provided | No financial compensation |
An important structural difference between the two breaks: lunch is not part of your working day and you are not paid during it, which is why an eleven hour day contains ten paid hours. The second break is part of your working day and you are paid through it.
The additional break on a continuous working day
Continuous days have their own third break. It begins no more than 12½ hours from the call time, and follows the 30 minute break that comes after 9 hours.
It cannot be delayed. It is given after 12½ hours or it is not, and if it is not, the break penalty is payable: 30 minutes at your basic hourly rate. This break only exists on continuous working days.
Breakfast
Provided as a courtesy. Not compulsory. No compensation if it is not provided. That is the whole clause.
Why these get missed
Break penalties are small individually and awkward to raise in the moment. A tenner for a late lunch feels like it is not worth the conversation, so it goes unclaimed, and then it goes unclaimed again on the next job.
The 6½ hour conversion is different. That one is not small, and it is missed for a different reason: nobody knows to look for it. It is a rule that fires silently, changes the shape of your day, and leaves no trace on the call sheet.
What we built
TimeMachine tracks your first break against your call time and tells you when it is late, when it is very late, and when the day has converted to continuous. On conversion it switches the whole day to the continuous structure and moves your overtime threshold from eleven hours to nine, automatically. It stops the £10 penalty at that point, because the terms say you do not get both, and an invoice charging both is an invoice a production can argue with.
The short version
- First break: one hour, within 5½ hours of call. Late is £10.
- Curtailed lunch moves your overtime threshold earlier by exactly the time you lost.
- No first break within 6½ hours of call and the day becomes a continuous working day. Worth far more than £10, and it replaces the £10 rather than adding to it.
- Second break: half an hour, within 5½ hours of the end of the first. Missed is 30 minutes at BHR.
- Lunch is unpaid and outside the working day. The second break is paid and inside it.
- Continuous days get a third break at 12½ hours, same penalty if missed.
- None of this applies to PMs, PAs or runners.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA). It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms as a rate reference only. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.