I will check with my missus when she gets back from shopping as she is a unison rep anyways readin the dti stuff
48 hrs is the maximum you can be required to work and its only OPTIONAL to work more than this.
You have a right to 11 hrs rest per day therefore your employer can only make u work 13 hrs in one stint
You are also entitled to two rest periods of 24hrs within every 14 day perriod or one rest of 48 hrs
You are entitled to no less than 20 mins rest break if your working day is more than 6 hrs, it is not specific as to when this break must be taken
i guess in regards to working the straight hours its down to interpretation of the
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1998/19981833.htm working time regulatsion I personally would say you could not work a 14 hr shift even with a one hour break as it is still more than the work is allowed in a 24hr period. However a businessmans interpretation would undoubtadly read it the other way round that they have infact only worked the 13hrs in the 24hr period. Of course if they have only a 59min break then it matters not of the interpretation and they have worked more than the legal limit allows.
Nightworks can only work 8 hrs in any one go.
This all comes down to health and safty aswell an employeer should keep records of all hours an employee works.
Of course all the regulations and agreed working times should be outlined in the working contract that an employee has with their employer which they should be provided with within 1 month of commencing employment i beleive.
Anyways to me who is not legally minded or any of that stuff the working time agreement is just a big list of referals to other paragraphs which use big words that mean nothing and can be interpreted in different ways and it should by hyperlinked so that i can see which paragraph they are refering to or at least have an on mouse over even displaying it but i guess thats why im not a lawyer or govenment employee.