Working for More Than One Company? Here's How the 48-Hour Week Applies
Working for more than one security company? Here's how the UK's 48-hour week limit works across multiple employers, and how to stay on top of it.
Plenty of guards work for two or three companies to fill their week. The 48-hour limit doesn't check which company you're clocked in with, it checks your total hours.
The rule
UK law limits the working week to an average of 48 hours, usually averaged over 17 weeks. You can opt out and legally work more, but the default limit applies across all your jobs combined, not per employer.
Why this catches multi-site guards out
If you do 30 hours with one company and 25 with another, you're at 55 hours, over the limit, even though neither individual employer sees you as full time. Each company only sees its own rota. Nobody is checking the combined total except you.
Opting out
You can sign an opt-out agreement to work more than 48 hours a week. It has to be your choice and in writing, and you can cancel it with notice. If you've never signed one and you're consistently over 48 hours across your jobs, that's worth checking.
Why it's not just a paperwork issue
The limit exists because long hours without enough rest affect concentration and safety, which matters more in security work than in a lot of jobs. Guards on site alone, at night, benefit the most from actually knowing their real weekly total, not just each company's.
How to actually calculate your week
Add up hours worked across every company for the same 7-day period, not each company's own week if they don't line up. This is where most people lose track, because it means combining numbers from separate payslips, apps or rotas.
Where Shiftaan fits in
Shiftaan totals your hours across every company you log, so your real weekly number is one figure, not something you have to calculate by hand from separate timesheets.
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