Gallagher v Alpha Catering Services Ltd (Trading as Alpha Flight Services) [2005] ICR 673Catering services employees were required to spend “downtime” at airports while waiting for aircraft to be serviced. The place that they were required to wait in only had basic facilities such as a toilet. They might be required to service an aircraft at any moment. This downtime was therefore held not to be a “rest-break” for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998. The company could not claim retrospectively that they had had a 20 minute break if they had not been required to service an aircraft during that time.
