Lunch
crawfod
204 Posts
Are employers in Tennessee required to allow employees a lunch period?
Can an employee work 8 consecutive hours without taking a lunch break?
Another way to word my questions is: I realize employees are entitled under FLSA to be compensated if they eat their lunch at their desk and continue to perform some duties. So, if an employee prefers to do that and only works 8 hours, from say 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., can the employer allow them to do that?
I personally believe every employee should take at least a half hour lunch break, and I also assume employers can require employees to do so, but if it was mutually beneficial for employees to not have such a break, I wanted a legal opinion on that topic.
Hopefully this is clear. If not, I trust you will respond accordingly. Thank you.
Can an employee work 8 consecutive hours without taking a lunch break?
Another way to word my questions is: I realize employees are entitled under FLSA to be compensated if they eat their lunch at their desk and continue to perform some duties. So, if an employee prefers to do that and only works 8 hours, from say 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., can the employer allow them to do that?
I personally believe every employee should take at least a half hour lunch break, and I also assume employers can require employees to do so, but if it was mutually beneficial for employees to not have such a break, I wanted a legal opinion on that topic.
Hopefully this is clear. If not, I trust you will respond accordingly. Thank you.
Comments
I agree, it is a good idea for everyone to take some type of a lunch break just to get away from their office for a few minutes, even if they only go outside and walk around. An employer can require employees to take a lunch break. However, again,if they DO work through lunch, they have to be paid. It may be necessary,on occasion,to work through lunch, or eat at the desk, but not as a general rule.
We have one assistant who comes in at 7AM and leaves at 4PM. She is supposed to take an hour for lunch. I noticed that she kept leaving earlier and earlier and after I inquired with another assistant, I found she was only taking a few minutes for lunch and tacking it on to her end of day schedule. The other assistants started complaining that she wasn't around in the late afternoon to help with phone calls, etc. Needless to say, we had to put a stop to this practice.
The relevant legal provision is in Title 50, Chapter 2, General Provision 103(d)is:
"Every employer shall establish and maintain regular pay days as herein provided, and shall post and maintain notices, printed or written in plain type or script, in at least two (2) conspicuous places where such notices can be seen by the employees as they go to and from work, setting forth the regular pay day as above prescribed. Each employee must have a thirty (30) minute unpaid rest break or meal period if scheduled to work six (6) hours consecutively, except in workplace environments that by their nature of business provide for ample opportunity to rest or take an appropriate break. Such break shall not be scheduled during or before the first hour of scheduled work activity."
If you want to find out if the provision can be mutually waived under Tennessee law, you probably should inquire of the Tennessee State Department of Labor and Workforce Development. I think wihtout such clarification for an employer to assume that it can be mutually waived may turn out to be a problem since the employee can always come back later and say that he was coerced into waiving it ("well, if you want to continue working here, you'll waive your lunch period).
>[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-10-03 AT
>04:48 PM (CST)[/font]
>
>Since I'm not in Tennessee, I checked the state government's website
>for labor.
>
>The relevant legal provision is in Title 50, Chapter 2, General
>Provision 103(d)is:
>
>"Every employer shall establish and maintain regular pay days as
>herein provided, and shall post and maintain notices, printed or
>written in plain type or script, in at least two (2) conspicuous
>places where such notices can be seen by the employees as they go to
>and from work, setting forth the regular pay day as above prescribed.
>Each employee must have a thirty (30) minute unpaid rest break or meal
>period if scheduled to work six (6) hours consecutively, except in
>workplace environments that by their nature of business provide for
>ample opportunity to rest or take an appropriate break. Such break
>shall not be scheduled during or before the first hour of scheduled
>work activity."
>
>If you want to find out if the provision can be mutually waived under
>Tennessee law, you probably should inquire of the Tennessee State
>Department of Labor and Workforce Development. I think wihtout such
>clarification for an employer to assume that it can be mutually waived
>may turn out to be a problem since the employee can always come back
>later and say that he was coerced into waiving it ("well, if you want
>to continue working here, you'll waive your lunch period).
[url]http://198.187.128.12/tennessee/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.htm&2.0[/url]
This is a website that lists various state codes.
Also, try the summary at the Tennessee labor department:
[url]http://www.state.tn.us/labor-wfd/lsques.html[/url]
Scroll down toward the bottom of the FAQ.
Bonafide meal periods are not worktime. Bonafide meal periods do not include coffee breaks or time for snacks. These are rest periods. "The employee must be completely relieved from duty fo the purposes of eating regular meals". This covers all three meal periods in a 24 hour period of time. The key words are "completely relived from duty". If you allow them to work and eat at their desk, the period can not interrupted by one business telephone or question about work of the meal period starts all over and must be at least 30 minutes in length without interruptions. The employer can not hide behind "well he/she volunteered", the company just bought a wage and hour finding and do they make haste ad putting employees name on their list and make you the company show proof that they were "completely relieved from duty"!!! needless to say the company can not provide proof we never kept any record and could not prove "NO INTERRUPTIONS" WHILE EATING AT THE DESK OR IN THEIR PLACE OF WORK, LIKE ON THE FENDER OF THE VEHICLE I'M WORKING ON OR THE IN THE DITCH THAT I'M DIGGING! AND IT GOES ON AND ON!!
It is a management/supervisor operations concern/issue get the HR and staff out of this action or it will choke the HR to death. Don't let management nor owners, nor CEOs, nor COOs to shovel this bag of "hog poop" in your direct. you keep the rules you should not enforce the rules, been there and done that!
Boy am I long winded today! Pork
I have been corresponding with Annette Rowland (annette.rowland@state.tn.us)regarding rest break and lunch break questions. She has been most helpful. (I had read/seen that lunch breaks after 6 or more hours were required for minors only. However, it seems that this isn't the case. If an employee works 6 or more consecutive hours, they are entitled to a 30min. rest/meal period (off the clock.)
However, there are not state (or federal) requiremens for additional "breaks". Federal does require breaks of less than 25 minutes in duration be paid if the employer chooses to grant such breaks, but they are not required.
Hope this helps you.
Either way, we intend to provide a rest period free of responsibility, and we will not allow this person to volunteer to waive this period in exchange for leaving work after a total of 8 hours on the job.
>E Wart
>I have been corresponding with Annette Rowland
>(annette.rowland@state.tn.us)regarding rest break and lunch break
>questions. She has been most helpful. (I had read/seen that lunch
>breaks after 6 or more hours were required for minors only. However,
>it seems that this isn't the case. If an employee works 6 or more
>consecutive hours, they are entitled to a 30min. rest/meal period (off
>the clock.)
>However, there are not state (or federal) requiremens for additional
>"breaks". Federal does require breaks of less than 25 minutes in
>duration be paid if the employer chooses to grant such breaks, but
>they are not required.
>
>Hope this helps you.