Okay, so context: I work in a bar that has a restaurant attached to it. For the last two years we’ve been allowed to have one free shift meal. However, we’ve never been given meal breaks to eat this meal and have to do it in about 5 minutes as a barback watches the bar so we can go back to working our 6-13 hour shifts. Staff has always just put up with this because free food and the tips at this place are really good.
Recently, however, we were notified that we cannot ever eat behind the bar during our shifts. (This makes sense as it’s a health code violation, but my coworker got in trouble for eating a jolly rancher when the place was empty.) So the jolly rancher has now led the owners to decide that not only are they going to take away our free meals from the restaurant, but that we are not allowed to EVER eat when we are clocked in. This means for shifts that range from 6 to 13 hours, we will not be able to eat anything. We will not be able to eat food we bring in, have delivered, or even pay for a meal at the restaurant we work in (because free shift meals have also been eliminated.) We are not allowed to have our legally required 30 minute meal breaks either.
So I just wanted to reach out to see if anyone had any advice on what to do about this. I know what they’re doing is illegal, but I’m in NY, where filing any complaint with the department of labor has taken 1.5-5 years to even be addressed (I’ve filed two complaints against prior restaurants in the past and neither have reached a resolution yet.)
Also, none of this has been put in writing. All employees are having verbal meetings with management about the new policies. So I’m really at a loss as to what can be done. I actually really like my job and the money is great. But I will be damned if they expect me to work 13 hours without eating a thing.