I had a small argument at work today with one of the co-workers. He said that there is a law that says that people have to take a break every 2 hours from work. I said that’s not true, but he insists that it is true.
So is there a law like this?
I think that OSHA requires a 15 minute break for anything over a four hour shift and a 30 minute lunch for a shift of eight hours or more. I doubt that it applies to management types, of course.
(Runs off looking for a link…)
OK, first off, this would fall under the Department of labor, not OSHA (D’oh!) Second, “U. S. law does not require employees to have lunch breaks”, according to fairmeasures.com.
In California, however, your boss has to let you have a 30 minute lunch break if you work more than five hours (you can agree to no lunch for a six hour shift.) They have to give you another break if you work another five hours, which you can refuse if you didn’t refuse the first one.
Here’s the link:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=0920013909+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
Labor laws get confusing. I had to contact the Dept. of Labor some time back in an attempt to bring my employer up on labor violations.
If you work for an hourly wage in a basic job, nonagricultural, you are to have a 30 minute break for lunch and two breaks for ‘sanitary’ considerations. Your company does not have to give you sick time, pay you for lunch breaks (most don’t, they simply increase your working day), provide you with insurance nor work you a full 40 hours. (To avoid overtime and paying company benefits, many major companies have started working employees 39 hours a week.)
If you are a salaried employee – oh boy! Can you get legally screwed. By being salaried, you agree to do X amount of work for Y amount of money no matter how long it takes which essentially eliminates over time. Also, by being salaried, which makes you something like an independent contractor, your employer does not have to give you lunch breaks or any other form of break and you may be worked over 40 hours a week.
If your employer needs you, the salaried employee, to work over 40 hours, he may present you with an hourly wage option to cover the time needed, which will usually be less than what you would make per hour on salary and will not be considered over time so as not to gain time and a half.
Again, he does not have to offer a salaried employee any benefits. In areas where he has to offer insurance, he may offer plans where the employee is required to pay the majority of the premium while he pays very little and can offer a plan so exorbitant that most employees will refuse it. That way he does not have to pay anything on their insurance. (That happened to me.)
Under certain circumstances, a salaried employee may make time and a half over 40 hours in a ‘pay period’ but such time and a half will be at 50% of the normal rate.
If you work for the agricultural industry or drive a truck, you are essentially screwed. If you work for a small subcontractor, you are screwed.
Even Unions will not protect one because some of the major unions, in an effort to get as many members as possible, have made deals with places like city and country offices in order to unionize their fewer employees that essentially guarantee that the Union will do nothing if anything happens.
Subcontractors, may, if a Union attempts to organize their workers, void their contract, fire everyone, restart under a new name, pick up the original contract and hire new, nonunion workers.
It all gets real confusing.
Sometimes it’s not a law, sometimes it’s the union rules. I worked in a shoe factory stitching insoles a long time ago, and we weren’t allowed to work through our lunch breaks (if you were behind on your quota and wanted to catch up.) We were told, “That’s the union rules,” and one older woman told me, “Honey, we worked real hard to get to where management couldn’t MAKE us work through our lunch breaks to get caught up, so don’t knock it.”
Also, a lot of factories have local rules about taking rest breaks, because the more tired you are, the more likely you are to get your hand caught in the machinery. And a lot of white-collar companies will make you take your coffee breaks, etc., just so you can’t complain to OSHA that you’re being worked to death.
im a police dispatcher in texas (im a city employee) and we dont get lunch breaks, or even little 15 min breaks…we work 8 hours straight through (though its very often 12 hours) and we eat where we sit and take restroom breaks when someone can cover your station for you…BUT we do get paid time and a half in either OT pay or comp hours (i had 32 OT hours last paycheck for a two week period and i thought i was rich! LOL)
Thanks to everyone for the answers, esp. cornflakes
Heh, they usually hide it be calling it closed for remodeling. :mad:
Breaks can be a good thing in any manufacturing settings, as the more fatigued the workers become, the more defects they will produce. That was the theory at the Hewlett Packard plant I worked at, where we had two lunches, four official breaks, and as many other breaks as you could find time for.
All said and done, I believe that the laws governing lunches and breaks depend on the state you work in. In another job I had, an employee used to voluntarily work through lunch for two years. He then left the company and successfully sued for back wages. The company then made it a policy that all employees must take their lunch break.
You’re welcome, Louie. Thanks for saying it!
I just realized that the CGI won’t recognize the above link. The info is in section 512 of California’s labor law. To find it, go to http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html , select the “Labor Code” option and enter “break lunch” into the keyword search.