young-worker-rota

---
name: young-worker-rota
description: Builds and checks the rota for 16 and 17 year old staff against the different hour, break, rest and night-work figures the Working Time Regulations 1998 set for young workers, and against the separate Licensing Act 2003 rule on who may actually sell alcohol. It does not reuse the adult rota's numbers with a note to "watch the young ones"; it runs a second, different set of limits, because every figure involved, the daily hours cap, the break length, the daily and weekly rest, and the night-work window, is a different number from the adult rota. Use whenever a 16 or 17 year old is rostered in a kitchen, floor, bar or front-of-house role.
---

# A rota for under-18 staff, checked against the under-18 numbers

You give this the rota lines for any worker aged 16 or 17, their role, and whether that role involves selling alcohol. You get back each shift checked against the young-worker hour cap, break length, daily and weekly rest, and night-work window, plus a flag on any alcohol sale a 16 or 17 year old is rostered to make without an authorised adult covering it.

## What it does

1. **Cap the day and the week at the young-worker figures, not the adult ones.** Regulation 5A(1) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 says: "A young worker's working time shall not exceed" either "eight hours a day, or" "40 hours a week." Regulation 5A(2) adds hours from a second employer into the same total, and regulation 5A(1) carries no exception at all, unlike several of the adult limits. Check both figures on every shift and every week, and add in any hours the worker has told you about from another job.
2. **Give the longer break.** Regulation 12(4) entitles a young worker to "a rest break of at least 30 minutes" where daily working time is more than four and a half hours, "which shall be consecutive if possible", against 20 minutes for an adult. A shift built on the adult six-hour trigger and 20-minute length is wrong on both numbers for a 16 or 17 year old.
3. **Give the longer daily and weekly rest.** Regulation 10(2) entitles a young worker to "a rest period of not less than twelve consecutive hours in each 24-hour period", against 11 for an adult, and regulation 11(3) entitles them to "a rest period of not less than 48 hours in each seven-day period", against 24 for an adult. Both figures are checked separately from the adult rota checks, not derived from them.
4. **Keep them off the restricted night-work period, with named exceptions only.** GOV.UK states young workers "usually cannot work between 10pm and 6am", a window a contract can shift to "11pm to 7am", and separately that "staff aged 16 or 17 cannot work between midnight and 4am" in any case. The same guidance lists hotels and catering among the sectors where the restricted period can be varied, and allows exceptional night work only "if there's no adult to do the work and they're needed to" cover "a sudden increase in demand" or "maintain the continuity of a service or production", with the employer then owing "a rest period of the same length as the extended shift." Flag any shift inside the restricted window and show which ground, if any, is being relied on.
5. **Check who is actually allowed to sell the alcohol on their rostered shift.** Section 153 of the Licensing Act 2003 makes it an offence for a "responsible person" to "knowingly allow" someone under 18 to make a sale of alcohol "unless the sale... has been specifically approved by that or another responsible person", and defines a responsible person as the premises licence holder, the designated premises supervisor, or an adult they have authorised. A 16 or 17 year old can be rostered behind a bar, but every sale they make needs that named adult's approval in place for the shift, not a general assumption that someone senior is usually around.

## Then it checks

1. Every young worker's daily hours are at or under 8, and weekly hours at or under 40, including any hours declared from another employer.
2. Every shift over four and a half hours has a logged break of at least 30 minutes.
3. Every daily rest gap is at least 12 hours and every weekly rest period is at least 48 hours.
4. Any shift falling inside the restricted night period is named, with the ground relied on and, where exceptional circumstances are claimed, the matching rest period logged.
5. Any shift where a young worker is rostered to sell alcohol has a named, authorised adult responsible person covering that shift.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never apply an adult figure, 48-hour average, 20-minute break, 11-hour daily rest or 24-hour weekly rest, to a worker this skill has been told is 16 or 17.
- Never mark a night shift as exempt without naming the specific sector ground or exceptional circumstance relied on, and never treat "we were short-staffed" alone as sufficient without the matching compensatory rest.
- Never assume alcohol-sale authorisation exists; it is recorded only when a named responsible person is confirmed for that specific shift.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own written particulars, licensing conditions and rota, and for their adviser to check any reliance on a night-work exception. It applies the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the Licensing Act 2003 to a draft rota; it is not legal advice and it is not confirmation that the published rota complies.

## Built from
- The Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 5A, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/5A, SI 1998/1833, read 3 November 2026: the 8-hour daily and 40-hour weekly cap for young workers, behind step 1.
- The Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 12, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/12, SI 1998/1833, read 3 November 2026: the 30-minute break for young workers, behind step 2.
- The Working Time Regulations 1998, regulations 10 and 11, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/10 and https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/11, SI 1998/1833, read 3 November 2026: the 12-hour daily and 48-hour weekly rest for young workers, behind step 3.
- GOV.UK, "Night working hours", https://www.gov.uk/night-working-hours, published by the Department for Business and Trade, no revision date shown on the page, read 3 November 2026: the restricted period, the midnight to 4am rule, the hotels and catering sector exception, and the exceptional-circumstances rest requirement, behind step 4.
- Licensing Act 2003, section 153, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/153, Act of Parliament, read 3 November 2026: the offence of allowing an under-18 alcohol sale without a responsible person's approval, and the definition of responsible person, behind step 5.

# young-worker-rota

## You are given
The rota lines for every worker aged 16 or 17: date, start time, end time, role, and whether the role includes selling alcohol. Each young worker's date of birth or confirmed age band. Any hours they have declared working for another employer in the same week. Any break records logged. The night-work ground being relied on for any shift inside the restricted period, if one is claimed: named sector exception or exceptional circumstances, with any compensatory rest given. For any alcohol-sale shift, the name of the responsible person authorising that shift and their role (licence holder, designated premises supervisor, or authorised adult).

## Produce
Write into a `./young-worker-rota-output/` folder:

1. `hours-check.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `date`, `shift_hours`, `other_employer_hours_this_week`, `total_hours_this_week`, `daily_verdict`, `weekly_verdict`. `daily_verdict` is `pass` or `exceeds 8 hours`. `weekly_verdict` is `pass` or `exceeds 40 hours`.
2. `break-check.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `date`, `shift_hours`, `break_logged`, `break_minutes`, `verdict`. `verdict` is `pass`, `below 30 minutes`, or `not logged`.
3. `rest-check.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `date`, `previous_shift_end`, `next_shift_start`, `daily_gap_hours`, `daily_verdict`, `period_start`, `period_end`, `weekly_rest_hours`, `weekly_verdict`. `daily_verdict` is `pass` or `below 12 hours`. `weekly_verdict` is `pass` or `below 48 hours`.
4. `night-work-check.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `date`, `shift_start`, `shift_end`, `inside_restricted_period`, `inside_midnight_to_4am`, `ground_claimed`, `compensatory_rest_logged`, `verdict`. `inside_restricted_period` and `inside_midnight_to_4am` are `yes` or `no`. `verdict` is `pass`, `midnight to 4am breach`, `no ground claimed`, or `no compensatory rest logged`.
5. `alcohol-sale-check.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `date`, `role_sells_alcohol`, `responsible_person_named`, `responsible_person_role`, `verdict`. `verdict` is `pass` or `no responsible person named`.
6. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: every `exceeds 8 hours` or `exceeds 40 hours` row; every `below 30 minutes` or `not logged` break row; every `below 12 hours` or `below 48 hours` rest row; every `midnight to 4am breach` row, listed first as the most serious; every `no ground claimed` or `no compensatory rest logged` row; and every `no responsible person named` row.

## Rules
- Codex counts, matches and checks. It never invents a worker's age, a declared outside-employer hour, a night-work ground, or a responsible person's name.
- A `midnight to 4am breach` is recorded as a breach regardless of any sector exception or exceptional circumstance claimed; GOV.UK's own guidance states this absolute rule separately from the variable restricted period.
- Every figure is calculated from supplied shift times, never rounded or estimated.
- Never apply this skill's figures to a worker whose age is not confirmed as 16 or 17; route an adult worker to rota-builder and a worker under school leaving age to the owner directly, since this skill does not cover that younger group.
- Use British English and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own written particulars, licensing conditions and rota, and for their adviser to check any reliance on a night-work exception. It applies the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the Licensing Act 2003 to a draft rota and is not confirmation that the published rota complies.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. Every young worker's daily and weekly hours against the 8 and 40 hour caps. Every break, daily rest and weekly rest verdict that is not a pass, stated in full. Every shift inside the restricted night period, with the ground claimed and whether compensatory rest was logged. Any `midnight to 4am breach`, named first. Every `no responsible person named` alcohol-sale row. The `gaps.md` item count.