I work for a company that uses ADP. I am a full time hourly employee expected to work 40 hours a week. My lunch is unpaid. So my hours are 8:30am to 5pm. After 6 hours of being on the clock, ADP automatically deducts a half hour of time to account for lunch. This is apparently where it's abnormal. I have never heard of it being done like that before, but mathematically I completely understand how that works. To others, they see it as me working a half hour extra. I don't see it that way, but I do see it as being forced to take a lunch break, and because they automatically deduct the time, I make sure I always take my half hour break.
So please help me out. Does anyone else have a job that does this? Is it an ADP thing? Is it specific to my company? Is that legal for them to force us to take lunch by automatically deducting a half hour of time as soon as I hit 6 hours? If I want to skip lunch and leave a half hour early or if I got in late and I want to make it up by not taking lunch, I can't, because we don't clock in and out for lunch, is that unheard of or illegal? Please help me put this question to rest. TIA