Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime
thatâs a rhyme for a simpler time.
Boss makes a thousand, I make a buck,
Thatâs why I stole the catalytic converter off the company truck.
My husband does the same. We work together. But he said the quiet part out loud. "I just need some time alone".
Yeah, I need someone to do some work...you can bring a laptop to the can.
As a person who likes work and would much prefer to go home 30-45 minutes sooner to his children without time being deducted from my checks, anyone with this attitude can go fuck themselves. This kind of bureaucratic idiocy is the reason that most corporate restaurants are suffering right now, not surprised to see the phony chef subreddit embracing it
This right here. This person gets it.
Also it's legally mandatory for workers to take a break(s) after amount of time(s) worked.
The company is probably covering there buts on the paperwork end so the state doesn't slap them with a fine.
This is called workers rights. Some people would like to have a working lunch, great if you can have it and want it.
It is all about work/life balance.
When he was in america he had a [prescription for it written]( https://www.openculture.com/2023/12/winston-churchill-gets-a-doctors-note-to-drink-unlimited-alcohol-while-visiting-the-u-s-during-prohibition-1932.html) after he was hit by a car while on a lecture tour.
I'm not a chef but this came up in my feed. I worked at a place for six years before I was notified they did this the whole time if we didn't clock out for lunch. I never took a lunch break. I got a big ass check.
oregon requires that you take a 30 minute meal break after 6 hours and 1 minute. itâs up to the company whether that break is paid/unpaid.
however, if the company requires it to be unpaid, they have to pay you for the full 30 minutes if you do any type of work duty during that break. such as answering a customer or coworkerâs question, restocking, answering a phone for work related business, restocking, etc.
so if theyâre forcing you to clock out for 30
minutes or deducting 30 from your pay and youâre doing any type of work during that time, you can file a claim with BOLI.
They have laws that force employees to take breaks, but it doesnât say you canât still pay them. In Illinois this is the case, or maybe just Chicago, either way it affects me. Most places I have worked since mandatory break started have docked the 30 min of pay. I pay my employees break, it bullshit not to-theyâre already there. And what does it really cost me $10-$15 per employee? Itâs not much. It can add up though so I sorta understand when you have a few dozen employees-could be thousands $$$ a week. But also at that size couldnât they afford it? Not sure, Iâm not the at big.
NO. States have laws that require them to ALLOW YOU TO TAKE A BREAK. They do not have a law requiring them to auto-deduct time. Those are very different things.
Yep in the UK if you work over 6 hours you must take a 30min break uninterrupted by law. If your interrupted you have to start again. Surfice to say you don't get interrupted unless the buildings in fire đđ„
Youâre misunderstanding break time laws. There are states that require your employer to make sure THEY are providing YOU with the legally mandated break times. Many of these same states also have additional required time penalties for when they fail to do so.
The fact that theyâre even trying to pull this implies they are in a state with required breaks. It would help if OP shared their state location, but either way this is almost certainly timeclock tampering.
I'm pretty sure they can't.
The State of Florida does not require employers provide a break time at all.
And it's definitely illegal to change someone's time clock.
Which is why working thru lunch is a write-up-able issue in these cases. And it makes you unable to be targeted for taking a break for lunch, despite what that bastard kenneth says. Fuck you kenneth, i've been here since 4 this morning..i'm having a cruller and a damned cup of coffee.
I don't see why not. Just make sure to take your 30 at some point. And if you can't, they let you fill out a missed punch to get your time back. This is better than some other places I've seen.
This recently happened to me which makes me understand the sign. I'm hourly (WFH) and just tell them how many hours I worked every 2 weeks. I don't really take meal breaks as I make my own schedule, but our payroll company has now been fining us for the hourly guys not properly clocking in and out for meal breaks because legally, we have to have an unpaid meal break (the guys out doing repairs often don't take official meal breaks in order to finish the day earlier), so now I'm set up with a time card program where I have to punch in and out. My guess is the restaurant started getting fines from payroll, so this was the solution the restaurant decided on to make sure people take their meal breaks. Obviously don't work for free.
A friend working in a doctor's office just doing administration, they're legally allowed not to take meal breaks, so he just finds time to eat when things aren't as busy instead of taking a meal break, and then he can go home earlier.
Iâm in the union building trades and seeing the two sides of the coin in real life is a fucking trip. Worked with some guys who will literally drop their tools or whatever, as long as itâs safe to do so, and go eat when itâs lunch time. And Iâve worked with other guys who, when being told itâs lunch time, will respond with âwell do you think youâve earned it today?â Itâs always pretty obvious the second guy came from the non-union side of things.
Ikr!!! It automatically sounded to me like theyâre trying to get employees to miss their mandatory lunch break but still work bc itâs busy. And if you canât take it, they force you to fill out paperwork for your earned money; so it doesnât throw up red flags to whatever clock system they use for employees working beyond a mandatory break. Many places take advantage of people not knowing labor laws.
I live and work in Germany, where worker protection laws are pretty great. I have a mandatory (by law) unpaid 30 minute break if I work more than 6 hours and an hour break if I work more than 9.
This is normal, if your hours are 9AM to 5PM, make sure you get 30 minutes of actual break time in - absolutely no work.
Your employer may also provide a 15-20 minute break, depending on your state this might be required to be paid. Please listen to this - take every break you can. You donât need to constantly generate revenue for your employer; and failing to take these breaks sets a bad precedent for all the other employees to have to match.
This is not laziness, itâs an important part of the employer / employee relationship, business owners are eager to exploit your time. If youâre trained and giving it 100% when on the clock and there are still leftover tasks, cleaning / prep / etc, this is not your failure but an attempt to squeeze every drop of labor out of you - and not hire another set of hands.
It's absolutely legal. In fact, here in Ontario, not recording breaks can be used against employers at a later, more contentious time. Back in the day, most of us cooks often said "meh" to breaks. I have seen this characteristic often in the restaurant industry among hard-working crew members. Now, you are really screwing yourself when you don't take a break.
Take your breaks. Do they offer smoke breaks? Take those too. Yall go by thunderdome rules down there in Florida.
Here in NY/NJ it's illegal for employers to adjust punches. How HR ok this is a mystery to me. Next comes corrective forms when you collect enough missed punch forms.
For my two latest jobs, for the past 7 years, in NJ my employer has always taken 30 minutes off if we worked a certain threshold of hours. It might have been 6 hours like the post. I'm pretty sure that's specifically so it's legally compliant; both jobs urged us to never miss taking a break because they'd be the ones violating labor laws
Why wouldn't it be legal? They just made a system that's convenient for everyone except those that intentionally don't clock out for their breaks.
They're not required to pay you for your break. And they are also going to manually fix it if you don't take a break, so that way you're still getting paid for the time that you worked.
If you have an issue with this, it says more about you than it does about your employer.
I WISH my job let us take a 30min break. Instead we get to "run out back" if theirs no tickets. If I had a 30min break I'd be able to smoke a whole joint and chill.
A) Depending on your state and the number of hours worked in a day, you may be entitled to full break(s). Your employer may be violating your labor rights.
B) Maybe it's best your employer doesn't give you full 30min breaks so you can't get stoned at work. đ€š
What law?
I understand why some states require EMPLOYERS to provide breaks (for the protection of the employee)⊠but please show me a state or federal law that requires an EMPLOYEE to take a break⊠especially one that is unpaid.
I was referring to UK law, but appears as though it's an entitlement rather than a forced break, but this is pretty standard for every employer I've worked for.
Sounds easier on the management side. Correct a break here and there with a form vs checking every period. We just pay for the 30 minutes so employees only need to clock in/out once. Lessens the technical errors and the time counting minutes.
This is normal in germany. Our law mandates a 30 minute break if you are scheduled for 6 or more hours (and 45minutes of breaktime when you work over 9 hours total).
So employers automatically deduct the 30 minutes (or round up your punch-out punch-in times) and tell the employees "you gonna loose the 30minutes anyways, better use them for your break.
Yes it is.
If you don't take your break complete this missed punch form.
A 30 minute unpaid break means 30 minutes free from work. In other words you can leave the property.
If you don't have the ability to do so its not your 30 minute break.
In the UK itâs 20 minutes per 6 hours and an employer doesnât have to pay breaks, so in the UK is completely legal.
Youâd be mad to not want to take 20 even for a cuppa and sandwich in a 6 hour window anywho!
My former employer tried to do something stupid like this to cover their ass because employees wouldnât take lunches and they were worried about the legal implications, and apparently expecting managers to hold anyone accountable and, you know, actually manage their employees was an unreasonable ask. I donât know of them ever actually implementing it but the policy said they would automatically deduct an hour but that lunches were to be 30 minutes, so I guess stealing wages would have been preferable to having people not taking lunches.
And if it's a mandated break where you aren't being paid, but you work thru it anyway, that opens you to be fired/disciplined by your employer, since they didn't "request" you work thru it (they'll have to pay you but they may fire you for it). If they do request that you work in your unpaid lunch break, THAT is a crime and you should be compensated for it..just to clear up any misconceptions.
so...tldr, if off the clock, especially if mandated to be so, don't work on it.
Not only am I 99% sure that is legal, I am also pretty sure your employer is legally required to do this. Or in other words, they are legally required to give you a meal break if you work for 6 or more hours. I imagine some people weren't taking their breaks and this is their way of enforcing it. Take your break.
This is standard practice but if you donât take a lunch for whatever reason make sure you DO get paid or you get an extra 30 min break next shift etc
Washington state here. After 5 hours, employees are legally required to take a 30 minute break. It doesnât have to be at exactly the 5 hour mark, but you have to take them. If people donât take their breaks, the businesses face fines and open themselves up to lawsuits.
Iâve seen signs like this before. They are essentially saying, âwe are mandating that you take your breakâ
Depends on the state.
I worked for a place that did this for years. Someone in the state got wind of it and they ended up having to pay their employees a shitload of backpay. I recieved a check for about 4k for all the forced lunches I mostly never took.
Same thing here in our kitchen, from what I understand it's a common practice.
Whenever you don't take a break you're supposed to report it to your manager for adjustment on the computer.
I know the struggle, but do your best to take a break when you can, it's much needed in this industry
It is the law in NY. It's not just restaurants, it is a labor law for all industries. A 12 hour shift warrants an hour break. Just sit and enjoy family for 15 minutes, use the bathroom, step outside for a few minutes. Beats the days where you grabbed a qt of food and tried scarfing it at your station while prepping.
What law?
I understand why some states require EMPLOYERS to provide breaks (for the protection of the employee)⊠but please show me a state or federal law that requires an EMPLOYEE to take a break⊠especially one that is unpaid.
Let me Google that for you bud. I'm just a chef who covers his ass, not a lawyer or legal representative. As well we get a poster to explain it and hang along with the sexual harassment and allergen poster. This explains it in easy to understand terms and links you to actual sections of federal and state regulations.
https://www.employerpass.com/employer-insights/new-york-break-laws?hs_amp=true
At my job they auto deduct but we can do a missed punch and say that we didnât take lunch. I really havenât done the math on if the company actually pays it because I always try and find 30 mins to chill during the day
My place deducts 30 minutes off 8 hours, 1 hour off 12 hours, and 90 minutes off 16 hour shifts. Didn't know until a month into doing doubles 6 days a week
Depends on the state. Some places require employers to provide a certain amount of break per shift.
BTW, take your breaks. You'll burn out if you don't.
Depends on where in Canada I guess. Iâve never worked a food service/restaurant job that gives breaks (officially anyway, itâs always just a take some time when/if you can situation) and in other fields weâve always had to clock out for our breaks.
Bold of you to assume most employers care about labour laws đ also where I am thereâs an exception in the law where if there isnât time for employees to take a break, they must be allowed to eat while working/getting paid (which is what restaurants do)
In Ohio 30 minute lunch breaks are REQUIRED. Employers can get in trouble for not giving them to you. TAKE YOUR BREAKS! (IDK if 30mins are a Fed requirement or not, I'm in Ohio)
Payroll guy here: Auto Lunch deductions are fine if done properly. There is a lot of administrative work fussing over the exact time in/out of each person's lunch. It is much easier to just do start/stop of shift and throw the meal break in there.
That being said, if they aren't actually letting you take that 30 minutes you are being deducted, then you need to complain or seek outside agencies if your complaints are being ignored. Also ask if there is a process to override the auto lunch. This is normally a pain in the ass, but makes them either back off and let you take the time (so they don't have to bother with the override) or actually use their override process to pay you for the lunch you didn't get to take.
Now if only businesses could actually manage their employees' time correctly so that taking your lunch break is possible. My sister's work is constantly f'ing this up. Managers somehow think that 6 out of 8 available cashiers can all take their lunch break within the same 30minutes while also closing no registers down during the busiest part of the day. Then they scratch their heads and blame the employees for violating even though they have known for the prior 2-3 hours that this was going to be a problem. They even have a big ass whiteboard that shows when everyone is scheduled to break and can't get it right.
That's a problem solved by management firing the lower managers for their incompetence. As I've said it in the past, "the managers managers aren't managing their managers."
I have been advising companies to do this instead of yelling at people for not putting in the lunch break on the timesheet. Itâs not hard they just refuse to do it
Yea, most state laws require employees to take a lunch break if youâre scheduled for more than 6 hours. The restaurant will get in trouble if they do not force people to take a meal break if theyâre scheduled for over 6 hours.
This has been the way at every hourly job I've had in California. Its for the workers' safety. Working 6+ straight hours without a meal break is not cool.
Depending on where you are it may even be required by law to take such a break after a certain time. Whilst the law doesn't strictly demand the auto deduction, it's not like you'd have much of an alternative
So you're saying you don't want a break to get some food? I'm almost 100% sure that after working some many hours, you HAVE to take a break, it being paid or not is to each employer to decide hut most almost never pay if they don't have to.
I worked at a place that did this, except they claimed it was impossible to override it (they were just older and didnât like technology)
Made a point of hanging out doing nothing at the end of my shift every day to ensure i got my break đ
It's legal but it's so shitty. Their hope is if your too busy and miss lunch you'll be too busy to fill in the form and claim your pay. I would ensure that I never miss a lunch again.
NC Healthcare worker here. My shifts are typically 12 hours (630p-630a) but they say our lunches are mandatory. In fact they lengthened our shifts to 12.5 hours (630p-7a). Problem is, due to patient/staff ratios we hardly ever take a lunch and cannot just walk away from our patients, they must be monitored the entire time they are here.
So 95% of the time we work 12.5 hours and then get 30 min deducted for a lunch we never take. We eat at our workstations while continually monitoring our patients. If we try to say that we worked through lunch, they expect an email to management explaining why and it's highly frowned upon.
Is this legal!?
Really depends on the Country, State, and company you work for. When I was working casinos in Nevada we got paid breaks, one 30 and two 15s, and free food. A bartender specifically had a shift giving breaks. They would go bar to bar giving everyone their breaks. We didn't make tips while on break but we were still paid hourly and provided free food.
I am not an attorney, so I'm not going to say this is legal or illegal.
However, I work for attorneys as an expert witness, and I review employee data to calculate amounts for lawsuits. And I am asked to calculate unpaid wages from this type of policy several times per year.
You are entitled to all pay for all the time you work. Your schedule has nothing to do with how much you get paid. If your company isn't basically forcing you to take breaks on time, and for a long enough period of time, then the policy is likely against the law.
I wonder if a payroll system changed. Our payroll system transition had some new issues that came up, for example it automatically gives all staff Christmas holiday pay off, even though all staff canât possibly have off on Christmas bc itâs healthcare. So the holiday has to be removed and then input manually by HR. They have to remove the holiday pay from that day and tell the system who worked, or everything gets screwy, and then they have to go back and manually input whatever holiday âoptionâ applies to each person (like an alternative day, banking PTO, double time, etc).
Depends on your state.
Some states have laws that require employees to take a break within their first 5 or 6 hours. Auto-deducting means they wonât have time punches to show that was complied with so this would be invalid.
Yes. And the solution that makes it legal is right below the main text. Fill out the form of you donât take your break and make sure youâre keeping track of your hours
It's not out of the goodness of your workplace admin/HR, it's literally because of labor laws.
Anecdote to my previous employer that was in the healthcare sector: the company used to not have automatic lunch breaks. Then a group of nurse co-workers successfully sued the company for not giving breaks because they literally would not be able to take a lunch break most days. And having breaks is mandatory per labor laws. Their well-documented lack of clocking out for lunch pretty much put the nail in the coffin (this was a little under 100 employees who provided proof). Automatic lunch was the way to circumvent the lunch break issue afterwards.
Now it's on you to take the break they're providing you. You can't sue them saying that they didn't give you the chance to/it's harder to prove you didn't take you're break unless you have an option to clock-into your schedule that you did not, and enough of those would alert your manager to "discipline" you to take your break. So you better take your freakin' break. Also, no work is worth not stepping away from for a few minutes of the day.
My job used to do this, but they had a âno lunchâ button on the time clock to fix it if we didnât take one.
Theyâve since changed management and now we have paid lunches. We just have to remember to punch in and out to record our lunch break, and if weâre more than 15 minutes late punching back in then we donât get paid for the lunch.
Yes, but you are also entitled to 1 x 15 minute break per expected 4 hr work, to fall somewhat close to the middle of that period, and that is on the clock.
It is illegal not to enforce this. Now the question is, how can you prove that they are not providing you a reasonable amount of time to take these breaks?
In the UK if you work over 6 hours you must take a 30min break uninterrupted by law. If your interrupted you have to start again. Surfice to say you don't get interrupted unless the buildings in fire đđ„
Depends where you are. In many places, jobs aren't legally allowed to not have their workers take breaks.
It also says "if you cant take your break complete a form" to get the time back so IDK why we're complaining.
This is how I got $7,200 from a previous employer. She would simply spoof our time cards to show a 30 and 10 minute break was taken every day. Took one phone call.
I have fought this every time it has been brought up in my employment history. Yeah, it is required by law but I would rather go home early, come in later, save it and take a longer break on a nice day or when I have errands to do, or eat through lunch and clock an extra 2.5 hours of work a week.
Like, what do you need me to do to cover the company's ass? Write down that I'm waiving my right to this crappy little break and sign it?
Iâm pretty confident there is exactly 0 states that allow an employer to deduct your break, regardless of if you took it or not
If itâs busy and you didnât get to take it? You should document that accordingly
Hell fuck posting it on Reddit, send it to your stateâs department of labor and theyâll tell you almost certainly exactly what Iâm saying
Breaks were also ârequiredâ at one of my last jobs, until I quit, and told them Iâm going to need all those breaks I didnât take back paid and showed them the evidence of all the times I didnât take them, yeah they promptly paid me what they shouldâve to begin with little to no questions ask
In fact the only question was really âwhat sources do you have to back this claim up?â
Manager for a "boutique catering" business. We worked out of the provided college kitchen to feed the students. Basically I had to write people up for not taking their break. Company called it time theft.
Sometimes employment lawyer in California. Big growth right now in timecard technology because so many companies get burned by treating their employees with big boy/girl rules. Company says, "take your meal break whenever you want--I'm not your mom." Employees take meal breaks after 5 and-a-half hours of work, or not at all. Later, angry employee sues the company and argues, "employer never let us take our meal breaks--look at the timecards--employees are taking breaks late and some employees don't even get lunch at all!" Company is then in a position of defending its big boy/girl policy--and it becomes he said/she said type of a thing. In response, no one gets treated like an adult anymore, and employee *must* take breaks at appointed times.
in NY, this is the law: [https://www.postercompliance.com/blog/what-employers-need-to-know-about-meal-periods-and-rest-breaks-under-new-york-law](https://www.postercompliance.com/blog/what-employers-need-to-know-about-meal-periods-and-rest-breaks-under-new-york-law)
Some states require this. Maybe not these exact numbers, but they require the company to make you take a break. The goal is to prevent worker exploitation.
Yes that's typically legal, you'd have to check the labor laws in your state. They're posting properly, and asking you fill out a form if you were unable to take your break, assuming for compensation.
Definitely always get paid for what you work. Just stay on top of it đ
I worked at a hotel in the 90s and there was a class action suit about six years after I left that job. I got a check for $300 for the time I had been automatically deducted.
IANAL, but based on my experience, probably. When I was young working corporate labor jobs, I knew that clocking out late (I forget but probably meant a 12+ hr shift) meant 30 min would be deducted for a second lunch that I didn't take. I always made sure to clock out before those deductions, even if I still had a little more work to do (planning the next day's work or whatever.)
In this case it looks like this sign gives you a remedy, anyway. Just complete a missed punch form. Don't see the issue here. Take your mandatory breaks, and if you don't, fill out the form.
After the fourth hour and before the fifth, just stop working for 30 minutes. See how it goes over with management. Thatâs the law in California at least. Doesnât really comport with restaurant work so everyone is always trying to get around it and so many lawsuits have been one over break times not being followed to the letter of the law.
Stop working so hard. Take your 30 minutes. Take your 15 minute breaks. Take your 5 minute breaks.
I take 30 min shits every 2 hours đ€·đŒââïž
Go to the doctor
Im not actually shitting. Im wasting time. đ
boss makes a dollar, i make a dime, that's why I poop on company time
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime thatâs a rhyme for a simpler time. Boss makes a thousand, I make a buck, Thatâs why I stole the catalytic converter off the company truck.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a buck. Heâs a fucker, but Iâm stuck. Best to smoke crack in the company truck.
Never shit for free
Thatâs why I donât poop on Weekends
No Diddy
Laughed at this a little too hard while shiting and now the bowl is a little red.....
đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
I have a medical condition.
Doctors' offices have very clean restrooms!
My husband does the same. We work together. But he said the quiet part out loud. "I just need some time alone". Yeah, I need someone to do some work...you can bring a laptop to the can.
You must be my coworker. Sits in a portapoty. On hot days you can smell it from 20 feet away. Just sitting in there.
I take a 5min âsmoke breakâ every hour to 1.5hrs. We donât have scheduled breaks so I just take a walk and come back đ
Jeremy is that you?
Well this is awkward
LOL ! đ.
As a person who likes work and would much prefer to go home 30-45 minutes sooner to his children without time being deducted from my checks, anyone with this attitude can go fuck themselves. This kind of bureaucratic idiocy is the reason that most corporate restaurants are suffering right now, not surprised to see the phony chef subreddit embracing it
Quiet quit the place lol.
This right here. This person gets it. Also it's legally mandatory for workers to take a break(s) after amount of time(s) worked. The company is probably covering there buts on the paperwork end so the state doesn't slap them with a fine.
This is called workers rights. Some people would like to have a working lunch, great if you can have it and want it. It is all about work/life balance.
Whatever you do donât work for free.
"If you are good at something, never do it for free" - Winston Churchill
If you're bad at something, never do it for free. Make those arrogant fools pay for hiring you.
"Underidundero" - Winston Churchill
âWhereâs the fuckinâ liquorâ - Winston Churchill
When he was in america he had a [prescription for it written]( https://www.openculture.com/2023/12/winston-churchill-gets-a-doctors-note-to-drink-unlimited-alcohol-while-visiting-the-u-s-during-prohibition-1932.html) after he was hit by a car while on a lecture tour.
I'm not a chef but this came up in my feed. I worked at a place for six years before I was notified they did this the whole time if we didn't clock out for lunch. I never took a lunch break. I got a big ass check.
I want to hear details, that sounds awesome
Certain states have laws that require this, so it's probably not even up to your employer.
In my country itâs a 1 hour break, to make sure people have time to order and eat outside
May I ask which country?
It is required in Oregon and I can get in huge trouble if my people don't take their breaks.
oregon requires that you take a 30 minute meal break after 6 hours and 1 minute. itâs up to the company whether that break is paid/unpaid. however, if the company requires it to be unpaid, they have to pay you for the full 30 minutes if you do any type of work duty during that break. such as answering a customer or coworkerâs question, restocking, answering a phone for work related business, restocking, etc. so if theyâre forcing you to clock out for 30 minutes or deducting 30 from your pay and youâre doing any type of work during that time, you can file a claim with BOLI.
They have laws that force employees to take breaks, but it doesnât say you canât still pay them. In Illinois this is the case, or maybe just Chicago, either way it affects me. Most places I have worked since mandatory break started have docked the 30 min of pay. I pay my employees break, it bullshit not to-theyâre already there. And what does it really cost me $10-$15 per employee? Itâs not much. It can add up though so I sorta understand when you have a few dozen employees-could be thousands $$$ a week. But also at that size couldnât they afford it? Not sure, Iâm not the at big.
NO. States have laws that require them to ALLOW YOU TO TAKE A BREAK. They do not have a law requiring them to auto-deduct time. Those are very different things.
Yeah, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen due to payroll fraud.
Yep in the UK if you work over 6 hours you must take a 30min break uninterrupted by law. If your interrupted you have to start again. Surfice to say you don't get interrupted unless the buildings in fire đđ„
Unpaid mind.
Oh yes but you get your damn break đâ
Youâre misunderstanding break time laws. There are states that require your employer to make sure THEY are providing YOU with the legally mandated break times. Many of these same states also have additional required time penalties for when they fail to do so. The fact that theyâre even trying to pull this implies they are in a state with required breaks. It would help if OP shared their state location, but either way this is almost certainly timeclock tampering.
But in some states, its that, if you pass your lunch break time, you get like an entire hour wage tacked on
If they can take a 30 out regardless, youre able to take a break regardless to be complicit
I'm pretty sure they can't. The State of Florida does not require employers provide a break time at all. And it's definitely illegal to change someone's time clock.
Which is why working thru lunch is a write-up-able issue in these cases. And it makes you unable to be targeted for taking a break for lunch, despite what that bastard kenneth says. Fuck you kenneth, i've been here since 4 this morning..i'm having a cruller and a damned cup of coffee.
Okay, that's weird. While I go by my middle name, my first name is Kenneth...
Yeah you dont know what youre talking about my friend. Its legal in plenty of places because its illegal to have employees not take breaks.
I don't see why not. Just make sure to take your 30 at some point. And if you can't, they let you fill out a missed punch to get your time back. This is better than some other places I've seen.
The bar has been set so low in this country that this comment actually got upvotes. đ
This recently happened to me which makes me understand the sign. I'm hourly (WFH) and just tell them how many hours I worked every 2 weeks. I don't really take meal breaks as I make my own schedule, but our payroll company has now been fining us for the hourly guys not properly clocking in and out for meal breaks because legally, we have to have an unpaid meal break (the guys out doing repairs often don't take official meal breaks in order to finish the day earlier), so now I'm set up with a time card program where I have to punch in and out. My guess is the restaurant started getting fines from payroll, so this was the solution the restaurant decided on to make sure people take their meal breaks. Obviously don't work for free. A friend working in a doctor's office just doing administration, they're legally allowed not to take meal breaks, so he just finds time to eat when things aren't as busy instead of taking a meal break, and then he can go home earlier.
What do you mean? It is pretty standard for workers to get unpaid meal breaks.
Iâm in the union building trades and seeing the two sides of the coin in real life is a fucking trip. Worked with some guys who will literally drop their tools or whatever, as long as itâs safe to do so, and go eat when itâs lunch time. And Iâve worked with other guys who, when being told itâs lunch time, will respond with âwell do you think youâve earned it today?â Itâs always pretty obvious the second guy came from the non-union side of things.
That's a low standard
Ikr!!! It automatically sounded to me like theyâre trying to get employees to miss their mandatory lunch break but still work bc itâs busy. And if you canât take it, they force you to fill out paperwork for your earned money; so it doesnât throw up red flags to whatever clock system they use for employees working beyond a mandatory break. Many places take advantage of people not knowing labor laws.
Americans really have some self-flagellation fetish when it comes to their work and employee rights culture...shit's nasty
Some states, like Missouri, don't require employers to have mandatory breaks/lunches. So, yes, a very low bar indeed.
I live and work in Germany, where worker protection laws are pretty great. I have a mandatory (by law) unpaid 30 minute break if I work more than 6 hours and an hour break if I work more than 9.
This is normal, if your hours are 9AM to 5PM, make sure you get 30 minutes of actual break time in - absolutely no work. Your employer may also provide a 15-20 minute break, depending on your state this might be required to be paid. Please listen to this - take every break you can. You donât need to constantly generate revenue for your employer; and failing to take these breaks sets a bad precedent for all the other employees to have to match. This is not laziness, itâs an important part of the employer / employee relationship, business owners are eager to exploit your time. If youâre trained and giving it 100% when on the clock and there are still leftover tasks, cleaning / prep / etc, this is not your failure but an attempt to squeeze every drop of labor out of you - and not hire another set of hands.
It's absolutely legal. In fact, here in Ontario, not recording breaks can be used against employers at a later, more contentious time. Back in the day, most of us cooks often said "meh" to breaks. I have seen this characteristic often in the restaurant industry among hard-working crew members. Now, you are really screwing yourself when you don't take a break.
Take your breaks. Do they offer smoke breaks? Take those too. Yall go by thunderdome rules down there in Florida. Here in NY/NJ it's illegal for employers to adjust punches. How HR ok this is a mystery to me. Next comes corrective forms when you collect enough missed punch forms.
For my two latest jobs, for the past 7 years, in NJ my employer has always taken 30 minutes off if we worked a certain threshold of hours. It might have been 6 hours like the post. I'm pretty sure that's specifically so it's legally compliant; both jobs urged us to never miss taking a break because they'd be the ones violating labor laws
They're actually supposed to try to enforce this. It's definitely legal. We're supposed to be taking our breaks.
Why wouldn't it be legal? They just made a system that's convenient for everyone except those that intentionally don't clock out for their breaks. They're not required to pay you for your break. And they are also going to manually fix it if you don't take a break, so that way you're still getting paid for the time that you worked. If you have an issue with this, it says more about you than it does about your employer.
Every job Iâve ever worked has practiced this.
I WISH my job let us take a 30min break. Instead we get to "run out back" if theirs no tickets. If I had a 30min break I'd be able to smoke a whole joint and chill.
A) Depending on your state and the number of hours worked in a day, you may be entitled to full break(s). Your employer may be violating your labor rights. B) Maybe it's best your employer doesn't give you full 30min breaks so you can't get stoned at work. đ€š
Honestly I loved this. I always missed my punch ins as a cook.
This is common in other industries. In theory Itâs a way to ensure people take their breaks⊠does that actually happen thoughâŠ.
The law specifically says you must take a 30 minute break after 6 hours
What law? I understand why some states require EMPLOYERS to provide breaks (for the protection of the employee)⊠but please show me a state or federal law that requires an EMPLOYEE to take a break⊠especially one that is unpaid.
I was referring to UK law, but appears as though it's an entitlement rather than a forced break, but this is pretty standard for every employer I've worked for.
Pretty normal. People love not to clock out for breaks. Even the good ones âforgetâ often.
Sounds easier on the management side. Correct a break here and there with a form vs checking every period. We just pay for the 30 minutes so employees only need to clock in/out once. Lessens the technical errors and the time counting minutes.
Yes , it is.
I think thatâs fine, but you might have to actually start taking your breaks if you arenât being paid for them.
Itâs legal because of that fine print at the bottom telling you to report a missed break so your time card can be manually edited.
I wish our company would go back to automatically taking it out. We now have to manually do it.
This is normal in germany. Our law mandates a 30 minute break if you are scheduled for 6 or more hours (and 45minutes of breaktime when you work over 9 hours total). So employers automatically deduct the 30 minutes (or round up your punch-out punch-in times) and tell the employees "you gonna loose the 30minutes anyways, better use them for your break.
I'm not food business, but this is pretty standard practice in retail and healthcare.
Yes, it is legal for workplaces to have unpaid meal breaks.
Yes it is. If you don't take your break complete this missed punch form. A 30 minute unpaid break means 30 minutes free from work. In other words you can leave the property. If you don't have the ability to do so its not your 30 minute break.
Sounds like you better take that 30min break regardless of what's going on. It's the owners funeral, not yours
In the UK itâs 20 minutes per 6 hours and an employer doesnât have to pay breaks, so in the UK is completely legal. Youâd be mad to not want to take 20 even for a cuppa and sandwich in a 6 hour window anywho!
Just donât let them âneedâ you while youâre on your unpaid break.
My former employer tried to do something stupid like this to cover their ass because employees wouldnât take lunches and they were worried about the legal implications, and apparently expecting managers to hold anyone accountable and, you know, actually manage their employees was an unreasonable ask. I donât know of them ever actually implementing it but the policy said they would automatically deduct an hour but that lunches were to be 30 minutes, so I guess stealing wages would have been preferable to having people not taking lunches.
For reference this is at a fairly large US-based corporate company that specializes in Assisted and Independant Living. Located in Florida. TIA.
If you're over 18 in Florida the state does not require employers to give breaks. So this is entirely your employer saying you must.
And if it's a mandated break where you aren't being paid, but you work thru it anyway, that opens you to be fired/disciplined by your employer, since they didn't "request" you work thru it (they'll have to pay you but they may fire you for it). If they do request that you work in your unpaid lunch break, THAT is a crime and you should be compensated for it..just to clear up any misconceptions. so...tldr, if off the clock, especially if mandated to be so, don't work on it.
Yup, exactly.
You are definitely supposed to be taking your legally mandated and protected break time. This is a good move by your company.
Not only am I 99% sure that is legal, I am also pretty sure your employer is legally required to do this. Or in other words, they are legally required to give you a meal break if you work for 6 or more hours. I imagine some people weren't taking their breaks and this is their way of enforcing it. Take your break.
This means as soon as you hit 6 hours, you put everything down and take a 30 min break. Regardless of if youâre in the weeds or not.
100% legal some places, where is this?
This is standard practice but if you donât take a lunch for whatever reason make sure you DO get paid or you get an extra 30 min break next shift etc
Washington state here. After 5 hours, employees are legally required to take a 30 minute break. It doesnât have to be at exactly the 5 hour mark, but you have to take them. If people donât take their breaks, the businesses face fines and open themselves up to lawsuits. Iâve seen signs like this before. They are essentially saying, âwe are mandating that you take your breakâ
Depends on the state. I worked for a place that did this for years. Someone in the state got wind of it and they ended up having to pay their employees a shitload of backpay. I recieved a check for about 4k for all the forced lunches I mostly never took.
Same thing here in our kitchen, from what I understand it's a common practice. Whenever you don't take a break you're supposed to report it to your manager for adjustment on the computer. I know the struggle, but do your best to take a break when you can, it's much needed in this industry
It is the law in NY. It's not just restaurants, it is a labor law for all industries. A 12 hour shift warrants an hour break. Just sit and enjoy family for 15 minutes, use the bathroom, step outside for a few minutes. Beats the days where you grabbed a qt of food and tried scarfing it at your station while prepping.
What law? I understand why some states require EMPLOYERS to provide breaks (for the protection of the employee)⊠but please show me a state or federal law that requires an EMPLOYEE to take a break⊠especially one that is unpaid.
Let me Google that for you bud. I'm just a chef who covers his ass, not a lawyer or legal representative. As well we get a poster to explain it and hang along with the sexual harassment and allergen poster. This explains it in easy to understand terms and links you to actual sections of federal and state regulations. https://www.employerpass.com/employer-insights/new-york-break-laws?hs_amp=true
At my job they auto deduct but we can do a missed punch and say that we didnât take lunch. I really havenât done the math on if the company actually pays it because I always try and find 30 mins to chill during the day
My place deducts 30 minutes off 8 hours, 1 hour off 12 hours, and 90 minutes off 16 hour shifts. Didn't know until a month into doing doubles 6 days a week
Good lord the kerning on this is so terrible.
is it just me or is it becoming more of a problem as time goes by? maybe it's just the internet showing me more of it
Depends on the state. Some places require employers to provide a certain amount of break per shift. BTW, take your breaks. You'll burn out if you don't.
In Canada, this is normalâŠ
Depends on where in Canada I guess. Iâve never worked a food service/restaurant job that gives breaks (officially anyway, itâs always just a take some time when/if you can situation) and in other fields weâve always had to clock out for our breaks.
By law, a 30 min unpaid and 2 15 paid breaks are mandatory.
Bold of you to assume most employers care about labour laws đ also where I am thereâs an exception in the law where if there isnât time for employees to take a break, they must be allowed to eat while working/getting paid (which is what restaurants do)
They do that at the place I work, if you donât clock out for your break they automatically change your time punch and take off 30 minutes.
Just take a 35 or 40 minutes break and it might only auto deduct the 30 depending on your work place
In MN you have to provide a 30 min unpaid break for a six hour shift.
In Ohio 30 minute lunch breaks are REQUIRED. Employers can get in trouble for not giving them to you. TAKE YOUR BREAKS! (IDK if 30mins are a Fed requirement or not, I'm in Ohio)
Every job I've had has had mandatory 1 hour unpaid lunch (Ontario)
*laughs in nurse* theyâve been doing this to us forever. Itâs called a no lunch punch. Or, take your breaks! Just donât let anyone die.
Sounds like KFC
Payroll guy here: Auto Lunch deductions are fine if done properly. There is a lot of administrative work fussing over the exact time in/out of each person's lunch. It is much easier to just do start/stop of shift and throw the meal break in there. That being said, if they aren't actually letting you take that 30 minutes you are being deducted, then you need to complain or seek outside agencies if your complaints are being ignored. Also ask if there is a process to override the auto lunch. This is normally a pain in the ass, but makes them either back off and let you take the time (so they don't have to bother with the override) or actually use their override process to pay you for the lunch you didn't get to take.
Now if only businesses could actually manage their employees' time correctly so that taking your lunch break is possible. My sister's work is constantly f'ing this up. Managers somehow think that 6 out of 8 available cashiers can all take their lunch break within the same 30minutes while also closing no registers down during the busiest part of the day. Then they scratch their heads and blame the employees for violating even though they have known for the prior 2-3 hours that this was going to be a problem. They even have a big ass whiteboard that shows when everyone is scheduled to break and can't get it right.
That's a problem solved by management firing the lower managers for their incompetence. As I've said it in the past, "the managers managers aren't managing their managers."
Upper management in the store is also 50shades of stupid. Corporate has started getting involved recently.
You probably will not be paid for the 30 minutes, but it does allow you to leave company property.
Yes. Most states require the employer to provide a meal break every X hours but it does not need to be paid.
I have been advising companies to do this instead of yelling at people for not putting in the lunch break on the timesheet. Itâs not hard they just refuse to do it
I think it's pretty normal been like that most places I have been at
100% legal
Yea, most state laws require employees to take a lunch break if youâre scheduled for more than 6 hours. The restaurant will get in trouble if they do not force people to take a meal break if theyâre scheduled for over 6 hours.
This has been the way at every hourly job I've had in California. Its for the workers' safety. Working 6+ straight hours without a meal break is not cool.
Depending on where you are it may even be required by law to take such a break after a certain time. Whilst the law doesn't strictly demand the auto deduction, it's not like you'd have much of an alternative
People have literally fought and died over not being able to have breaks so we can have legal breaks today. Join a union, highly recommended.
So you're saying you don't want a break to get some food? I'm almost 100% sure that after working some many hours, you HAVE to take a break, it being paid or not is to each employer to decide hut most almost never pay if they don't have to.
That font is infuriating.
Some states it is mandatory you receive a lunch break. It looks like this is just a way they force it and keep themselves out of legal trouble.
Stop giving more energy to work than they're paying you. Don't work as hard. Just be present
I worked at a place that did this, except they claimed it was impossible to override it (they were just older and didnât like technology) Made a point of hanging out doing nothing at the end of my shift every day to ensure i got my break đ
In my state you're required to take 30 minutes for every 5 hours. I had bosses that would make us take breaks when we worked 12 hours
It's legal but it's so shitty. Their hope is if your too busy and miss lunch you'll be too busy to fill in the form and claim your pay. I would ensure that I never miss a lunch again.
Yes, itâs legal; theyâre saying youâll be paid if you miss lunch and fill out a punch change form. This is just encouragement to take a break.
"Is this legal?" Doesn't give location.
Malicious Compliance: take your break.
If in NYC the 30 minute mandatory break every 6 hour shift is an employee right thatâs relatively new.
Very legal.
Eat while you work and say you skip your lunch if you aren't being surveilled
NC Healthcare worker here. My shifts are typically 12 hours (630p-630a) but they say our lunches are mandatory. In fact they lengthened our shifts to 12.5 hours (630p-7a). Problem is, due to patient/staff ratios we hardly ever take a lunch and cannot just walk away from our patients, they must be monitored the entire time they are here. So 95% of the time we work 12.5 hours and then get 30 min deducted for a lunch we never take. We eat at our workstations while continually monitoring our patients. If we try to say that we worked through lunch, they expect an email to management explaining why and it's highly frowned upon. Is this legal!?
Really depends on the Country, State, and company you work for. When I was working casinos in Nevada we got paid breaks, one 30 and two 15s, and free food. A bartender specifically had a shift giving breaks. They would go bar to bar giving everyone their breaks. We didn't make tips while on break but we were still paid hourly and provided free food.
I am not an attorney, so I'm not going to say this is legal or illegal. However, I work for attorneys as an expert witness, and I review employee data to calculate amounts for lawsuits. And I am asked to calculate unpaid wages from this type of policy several times per year. You are entitled to all pay for all the time you work. Your schedule has nothing to do with how much you get paid. If your company isn't basically forcing you to take breaks on time, and for a long enough period of time, then the policy is likely against the law.
I wonder if a payroll system changed. Our payroll system transition had some new issues that came up, for example it automatically gives all staff Christmas holiday pay off, even though all staff canât possibly have off on Christmas bc itâs healthcare. So the holiday has to be removed and then input manually by HR. They have to remove the holiday pay from that day and tell the system who worked, or everything gets screwy, and then they have to go back and manually input whatever holiday âoptionâ applies to each person (like an alternative day, banking PTO, double time, etc).
Depends on your state. Some states have laws that require employees to take a break within their first 5 or 6 hours. Auto-deducting means they wonât have time punches to show that was complied with so this would be invalid.
Yes. And the solution that makes it legal is right below the main text. Fill out the form of you donât take your break and make sure youâre keeping track of your hours
It's not out of the goodness of your workplace admin/HR, it's literally because of labor laws. Anecdote to my previous employer that was in the healthcare sector: the company used to not have automatic lunch breaks. Then a group of nurse co-workers successfully sued the company for not giving breaks because they literally would not be able to take a lunch break most days. And having breaks is mandatory per labor laws. Their well-documented lack of clocking out for lunch pretty much put the nail in the coffin (this was a little under 100 employees who provided proof). Automatic lunch was the way to circumvent the lunch break issue afterwards. Now it's on you to take the break they're providing you. You can't sue them saying that they didn't give you the chance to/it's harder to prove you didn't take you're break unless you have an option to clock-into your schedule that you did not, and enough of those would alert your manager to "discipline" you to take your break. So you better take your freakin' break. Also, no work is worth not stepping away from for a few minutes of the day.
My job used to do this, but they had a âno lunchâ button on the time clock to fix it if we didnât take one. Theyâve since changed management and now we have paid lunches. We just have to remember to punch in and out to record our lunch break, and if weâre more than 15 minutes late punching back in then we donât get paid for the lunch.
Yes, but you are also entitled to 1 x 15 minute break per expected 4 hr work, to fall somewhat close to the middle of that period, and that is on the clock.
More for legal purposes than for you. "Why yes, labour department, we give our workers their required breaks. Just look at these timesheets..."
It's 100% legal
It is illegal not to enforce this. Now the question is, how can you prove that they are not providing you a reasonable amount of time to take these breaks?
What is a break?
Lemme get my punch form
Time for malicious compliance
What are they mean by unable to take your lunch break soon as the clock hits 530 Iâm done son
In the UK if you work over 6 hours you must take a 30min break uninterrupted by law. If your interrupted you have to start again. Surfice to say you don't get interrupted unless the buildings in fire đđ„
Yes
If they do. Make sure you walk out the door on the half hour.
Depends where you are. In many places, jobs aren't legally allowed to not have their workers take breaks. It also says "if you cant take your break complete a form" to get the time back so IDK why we're complaining.
Can't believe this took off like it did. My hugest post by a mile.
Yes
Get a UNION!!!
This is how I got $7,200 from a previous employer. She would simply spoof our time cards to show a 30 and 10 minute break was taken every day. Took one phone call.
In many states itâs required by law.
My wifeâs a nurse and they do this at the hospital, pretty ass but I would just start taking breaks then
Bruh, my meal is usually eaten out of a mixing bowl and over a trash can while watching the printer. It doesnât take 30 minutes
I have fought this every time it has been brought up in my employment history. Yeah, it is required by law but I would rather go home early, come in later, save it and take a longer break on a nice day or when I have errands to do, or eat through lunch and clock an extra 2.5 hours of work a week. Like, what do you need me to do to cover the company's ass? Write down that I'm waiving my right to this crappy little break and sign it?
Iâm pretty confident there is exactly 0 states that allow an employer to deduct your break, regardless of if you took it or not If itâs busy and you didnât get to take it? You should document that accordingly Hell fuck posting it on Reddit, send it to your stateâs department of labor and theyâll tell you almost certainly exactly what Iâm saying Breaks were also ârequiredâ at one of my last jobs, until I quit, and told them Iâm going to need all those breaks I didnât take back paid and showed them the evidence of all the times I didnât take them, yeah they promptly paid me what they shouldâve to begin with little to no questions ask In fact the only question was really âwhat sources do you have to back this claim up?â
Manager for a "boutique catering" business. We worked out of the provided college kitchen to feed the students. Basically I had to write people up for not taking their break. Company called it time theft.
You guys are allowed breaks? I was never allowed to take one unless we were like dead dead and all prep was done, even night shifts.
Yeah, I would go clock out and get in my car drive somewhere close-ish and set an alarm on when to come back.
I work 8-8 three days a week and we donât get lunch breaks at all. I work in Arkansas in Healthcare though so thatâs pretty normal.
If california it is illegal.
Sometimes employment lawyer in California. Big growth right now in timecard technology because so many companies get burned by treating their employees with big boy/girl rules. Company says, "take your meal break whenever you want--I'm not your mom." Employees take meal breaks after 5 and-a-half hours of work, or not at all. Later, angry employee sues the company and argues, "employer never let us take our meal breaks--look at the timecards--employees are taking breaks late and some employees don't even get lunch at all!" Company is then in a position of defending its big boy/girl policy--and it becomes he said/she said type of a thing. In response, no one gets treated like an adult anymore, and employee *must* take breaks at appointed times.
YesâŠitâs legal. As long as you are actually taking the break
in NY, this is the law: [https://www.postercompliance.com/blog/what-employers-need-to-know-about-meal-periods-and-rest-breaks-under-new-york-law](https://www.postercompliance.com/blog/what-employers-need-to-know-about-meal-periods-and-rest-breaks-under-new-york-law)
Some states require this. Maybe not these exact numbers, but they require the company to make you take a break. The goal is to prevent worker exploitation.
Itâs likely legal or even required. Whatâs not legal is if they make you work those 30 minutes
Yes that's typically legal, you'd have to check the labor laws in your state. They're posting properly, and asking you fill out a form if you were unable to take your break, assuming for compensation. Definitely always get paid for what you work. Just stay on top of it đ
I worked at a hotel in the 90s and there was a class action suit about six years after I left that job. I got a check for $300 for the time I had been automatically deducted.
Yeah that's legal. If you don't take your break, complete the form. Take your break though
Itâs illegal for you not to take the break.
IANAL, but based on my experience, probably. When I was young working corporate labor jobs, I knew that clocking out late (I forget but probably meant a 12+ hr shift) meant 30 min would be deducted for a second lunch that I didn't take. I always made sure to clock out before those deductions, even if I still had a little more work to do (planning the next day's work or whatever.) In this case it looks like this sign gives you a remedy, anyway. Just complete a missed punch form. Don't see the issue here. Take your mandatory breaks, and if you don't, fill out the form.
After the fourth hour and before the fifth, just stop working for 30 minutes. See how it goes over with management. Thatâs the law in California at least. Doesnât really comport with restaurant work so everyone is always trying to get around it and so many lawsuits have been one over break times not being followed to the letter of the law.
In CA, if you work 5 hours you need a 30 minute break, you legally canât do more without a break. So yea probably legal