Taken over by new company. We have previously worked 8.5 hours and got automatically deducted a 30 min lunch. If we fail to get a lunch, we can document that at time clock and be paid. All good.
New company now says we have to clock out and back in for lunch. But they've taken away the time clocks and now we have to clock in/out on computer which is time-consuming, or on an app on our phone, which our WiFi/data in the basement where we work is spotty. Also we have to do multi-factor authentication almost every time we get into our new company's websites so have to repeatedly get out our phones to do that. But whatever. So now I carry my phone with me all the time even though they don't want us using them during work.
So my question is twofold; seeing how inconvenient it is to have to do multiple extra punches throughout the pay period, couldn't they default it back to deducting a lunch, and second, what happens if we end up having to take less than 30/get interrupted such that we didn't get a full uninterrupted lunch (I work in grossly understaffed healthcare position) and therefore should get paid the entire 30 minutes, or we punch in at greater than 30 minutes just due to the ridiculous hoops of having to use phone or computer to sign back in. Wouldn't we then be getting less than a 30 minute lunch by definition if we attempt to be compliant?
Wondering if there's a grace period? Like might we get 35 for lunch to factor in stupid extra punches?
What has been others' experience with this? Have yet to get the poop from the managers on how they want us to handle this. Perhaps I'm overreacting. It's only been two days with new company and I just found out this new policy yesterday.