Y'know, I'd've thought not allowing you your breaks was illegal too. Where I work (admittedly not in the Ambulance Service, and not in the UK - am in the Irish Health Service) we *have* to take our lunch break. We have to clock in an out for it. And we're not allowed work it through in order to say, finish earlier, or take a half-hour off another day. If there's an emergency and we work it through, well tough (though our lab chief might fiddle something to let us get the time back, but it's not supposed to happen) EU Working Time Directive states something along the lines of obligatory half hour break for working 6 hours, and another 15 min if you work 8+ hours, something like that. I think LAS are extracting the urine, personally. Especially for a piddling £10! But then, half the time the UK seems to like to pretend it's not in the EU at all, and that EU laws don't apply ;)