Title explains the gist of it. I already looked it up and know the answer is “yes, they can't do that” but I'm looking for advice on how to bring it up and back myself up when I confront them about it.
I've been looking for a job for months now and I finally started as a serving assistant (cleaning tables, carrying food, etc.) at a franchise restaurant the other week (I don't want to say where exactly for privacy reasons unless I really have to but it's a fairly busy city-centre location). My last shift was the longest shift I've done there so far (7 hours, from 12-7pm), so I approached my manager just before my shift and asked when I'd get a break. They then turned to me and said “well, you don't usually get a break but since you've just started I'll let you have one today, just come see me about halfway through your shift when you want one”. I went off and worked until 4pm, then I went back to her and asked her if it was still ok to take a break and she said yes but I had to let the manager downstairs know first (we have a different manager for each floor of the restaurant and I was working downstairs that day). So I go back downstairs and tell the other manager the same thing but she got pretty moody about it. She tells me that I'm not supposed to have a break since I'm only a serving assistant, so I explain the situation to her about how I asked for a break and I was told I could have one today etc, and she rolls her eyes at me and very sternly says “okay fine but only for 20 minutes because we're really busy right now” (we weren't, and there were also multiple other SA's working that day)
So I went for my break, came back and worked the rest of my shift with nothing else being said about it by the managers but while I was on break and doing the rest of my shift I asked my co-workers if they get breaks as well. If they were serving assistants like me they all said something like “Yeah we don't get breaks it sucks” but if they were in some sort of senior job (e.g. host, waiter, bartender etc) then they all said something like “yeah we get a break because we work full day shifts but there's no chance you guys will get one”. General vibe seems to be that everyone knows it's bullshit and a few of them know it's illegal but they all just put up with it.
So what can I do to get them to give me a break on my shifts longer than 6 hours? My current plan is to approach one of the managers before my next 7 hour shift and say “are you sure I'm not supposed to have a break today? Because I looked it up and UK law says I need a break of at least 20 mins if I'm working longer than 6 hours” but I'm assuming they're just gonna tell me to fuck off and suck it up. Talked to a lot of friends about it as well and most of them have said that I need to be careful if i protest about it because if I've just started working the most low tier position of a place that has around 40+ employees then I'm not exactly hard to replace. I don't want to cause problems or make demands either but all I'm asking them for is to abide by the law and give me a 20 minute gap to have a snack and regain some energy, especially since we don't get free food (other than being allowed to help ourselves to the soda machines) so idk how they expect us to work such a long period of time without a break. So yeah, how can I protest this despite being a new hire because surely there's something I can do or someone I can report them to?