So, I’m a sales clerk at an adult store, and more often than not I’m the only employee there when I’m working, which means even when I’m clocked out for a break or my lunch I still end up working when customers come in the store. I’m not sure what the laws are on this, like I know typically you can’t work during your breaks but I don’t know if there’s exceptions for if you’re the only employee.
My manager says it’s fine we don’t get uninterrupted breaks because we can technically sit down and take a break whenever we want if there are no customers in the shop.
Now one of my coworkers once told me that the big boss told him that instead of clocking a lunch he’s allowed to just clock 2 paid breaks (I guess she doesn’t care that much if we get paid for our lunch or not, idk). That’s just according to him.
Now there have been days early on when I realized I completely forgot to clock a lunch at all and I worked more than 6 hours, but the boss never even said anything about it, ever. I took this to mean that either she doesn’t check or she doesn’t care. So I figured if no one’s gonna tell me otherwise, I’m just not gonna clock out for my lunches. I haven’t been clocking my lunches for like 2 or 3 months and still, no one has said anything.
I’m wondering if the reason she hasn’t said anything about it is because she knows we still work off the clock and would rather pay me for the extra 30 minutes a day then force me to clock out for lunch and risk me trying to get her in trouble for her (probably) illegal business practices. Then again, it could just be that no one even bothers to check. I’m not sure, but I haven’t been reprimanded yet, and I’d rather not ask about it because then I give up the ability to feign ignorance.
Anyway, do any of you guys deal with something similar? How strict is your workplace about clocking breaks and lunches?
Also is this like super illegal or is there some kind of loophole that lets them make us not have true breaks?