I work as a third-party security officer for a large distribution company, I’ve been here for 4 months and never had a problem in relation to my breaks or with anyone else, until yesterday that is.
So at 6am, there was 4 staff, excluding me, who was in the gatehouse.
At 9am, I get my first 15 min break, all is well.
However at 10am, I am told that at 11, there will only be 2 staff on, so no external patrols or spot searches or anyone to cover breaks.
At 11am I ask what’s going to happen about my dinner, no response.
At 12pm, no one comes to relieve me for my dinner, so I ask what’s going to happen, no answer.
At 1pm I ask again, no answer
Between this time I rang my manager who said you need a break, and to get it anyway possible.
At 2pm I ask again, no answer and no one knows what’s going to happen.
At 2:10pm, i ring transport office and tell them at 2:20, I will be closing the gatehouse for 30 minutes while I take my break, no one in or out.
Well within 5 minutes, the senior operations manager for transport rang the warehouse manager, who then rang the security manager, and then came into the gatehouse to take me off for my break
The manager tried giving me shit for it, you know, despite being my manager and having nothing to do with me, a driver was in here at the same time who said that “if he’d not have kicked and screamed, would you have given him a break?”, with the manager having nothing to say and being caught off by what he said.
and then at, 2:25pm, i got my 30 minute legally-entitled break after 5 hours of not having one, and then got one 5 minutes after threatening to close the gatehouse.
Apparently after I was took off for my break, the warehouse manager (who is the big regional boss), started chewing out the security manager as to why he didn’t have enough staff to cover me, and that his role as manager is starting to being questioned. We’ve always had issues with this manager, but I think they were looking for the ignition as to start whatever.