Automatic meal deduction

mbonello

Can I have a policy that all employees sign that allow me to automatically deduct our 30 minute lunch break from their shift time?  If yes, can someone provide me a such a policy? Thanks.

HRforME

(1) What state are you in?

(2) Under FLSA, the employer must track hours worked.  If you automatically deduct 30 minutes, then you need to make sure that each employee is actually taking 30 minutes each day, otherwise you are not paying them for actual hours worked.  If they sign such a policy and then work through lunch, the employer is REQUIRED to pay them for it, even if they are not authorized to break the policy. (Just like unauthorized OT).

Personally I don't think it is a smar t policy because it goes against paying them for the exact time they worked.

TXHRGuy

I have heard of some smaller companies doing this.  I don't think it's wise for all the reasons HRforME stated.  FLSA clearly puts the burden on the employer to know and record time worked.  If they work off the clock, it's on the employer to know that and pay them for it.  If they do it and don't tell you, they can still come back on you for it later.  Moreover, and perhaps worse, someone can maliciously claim and report that they worked off the clock and because you have no record of them clocking in and out, you wont have much to stand on.  Sure, you can discipline someone for violating your work rules, just be sure you don't, at the same time, retaliate against them for making a wage and hour claim against the Company.

LadyAnn

I actually did this until about 6 months ago, BUT let me explain the scenario.  I work in a manufacturing plant that had bells that would signal when it was break time, lunch time, etc.  Everyone in the plant took the same lunch (from 12 noon to 12:30 p.m.) So it was REAL obvious when someone was working during that 1/2 hour.  For the convenience of our employees, we allowed anyone who stayed on company premise to not have to clock in/out, but would automatically deduct their lunch.  Since it was an exception for someone to work during lunch, and not often granted at that, it was easy to make corrections.

That is the only situation where I can advise considering automatically deducting lunch. It was controlled and it was easy to tell who actually worked during lunch and we were able to make the necessary adjustments.

IT HR

I have seen companies do this because they only have one or two timeclocks and have a number of employees that are trying to clock in and out for lunch at the same time, causing a bottleneck at the time clock for many minutes.  When I worked in the manufacturing industry I actually got more timeclocks so we did not have this issue.  The employees actually didn't like to clock in and out for lunch but this was the only way we could make sure they were actually taking a lunch.  I justified the expense of the additional time clocks because they were a heck of a lot cheaper then going through a wage and hour lawsuit!!