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#1068014 - 10/21/08 06:56 PM lunch break
SUSANE1 Offline
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 808
What is the law for lunch break? We have several employees who like to work almost through lunch.

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Human Resources
#1068022 - 10/21/08 07:14 PM Re: lunch break SUSANE1
Al Miller Offline
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Al Miller
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,416
Pleasanton CA USA
It is a state issue. You might post your question in the state forum.

Al
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Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily shared by my employer.

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#1068320 - 10/22/08 01:14 PM Re: lunch break Al Miller
hrlady Offline
100 Club
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 127
Al is correct. There is no federal mandate regarding lunches or breaks. I am in the state of Missouri. There are no laws concerning lunch and breaks in this state. However, that being said, we feel everyone should take a minimum of a 30 minute lunch.

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#1068641 - 10/22/08 06:12 PM Re: lunch break hrlady
TrngMgr Offline
Member
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 91
NJ
I think the law looks at it from the POV that the employer must provide a certain amount of break time, and not from the POV that the employee must take the allotted time.

If you feel strongly that people need to get out of their office, away from their desk, etc., then you will probably need to incorporate that into your personnel manual. It's easier to force tellers to take their breaks, with a simple "No food behind the teller counter" policy.

But ................ be careful what you wish for.....

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#1068810 - 10/22/08 08:11 PM Re: lunch break TrngMgr
GoneToTexas Offline
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Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 135
Texas
Another way to look at this:
Are these employees doing this in order to leave earlier? If so, are other employees having to cover for them during a busier time of day? That can cause a lot of resentment in a hurry...

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#1070798 - 10/24/08 10:01 PM Re: lunch break GoneToTexas
GenerousLife Offline
Diamond Poster
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,466
USA
The previous posters are correct. No federal law for breaks of any kind. That is under the purview of a collective bargining agreement or a particular state.

The only referece I've seen regarding breaks states that if an unpaid break is given, the employee must be relieved of all duties or be paid for that time. So someone providing "switchboard relief" on "their" lunch hour, must be paid for that time. Same with "hey make this bank deposit on your lunch hour". Must be paid for that time.

GTT makes a great point, what if everyone worked through lunch and left at 4 pm? Generally, those accomodations are up to the organizations needs.
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#1100496 - 12/19/08 06:33 PM Re: lunch break GenerousLife
BurntSienna Offline
Diamond Poster
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,407
Midwest
Be careful of what you might do to staff morale if you decide to strictly enforce a "you must take 30 minutes unpaid lunch every day no matter what" policy! And don't tell employees the law requires them to take 30 minute lunch if no such law exists. In my state, a 30 minute lunch period must be OFFERED to the employee and they cannot be forced to work during the break if that time is unpaid.

At my bank, some employees in busy positions (wire transfer, IT) were punching out for their lunches and eating in the cafeteria and then being called back to their duties early quite often("this wire needs to go out RIGHT NOW!" or "my PC is broken - come quick!"), sometimes resulting in less than 30 minutes clocked out for their lunch period. Management started docking these employees' paychecks for the balance of the 30 minutes (i.e. wire employee only took 26 minutes for lunch before being summoned back to work to send that all-important wire, end of the week comes, time card has "MINUS 4 minutes: short lunch Tuesday" written on it by HR). Result: angry employees who feel unappreciated (no good deed goes unpunished!) and now simply leave the bank for their lunch periods and breaks. Now, they're simply unavailable for those "emergencies" and have less helpful attitudes in general.

Be careful what you wish for, and no matter what, treat employees like human beings worthy of respect, particularly when they are shortening their lunch to help out the bank or their co-workers and NOT to try to leave early.
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#1108852 - 01/09/09 11:35 PM Re: lunch break BurntSienna
Blade Scrapper Offline
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Blade Scrapper
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 5,912
Outside A Garage
I believe in CA 30 minutes is mandatory.
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