I work for a major corporation that I can’t name due to obvious reasons; but we just got hit with a new rule in December that we’re not really allowed to have a full 30 min lunch break anymore. State laws where I live declare that it’s not illegal to say that someone can’t have a lunch break as an adult, but that if it’s less than 30 minutes it must be paid time.
The department I work in has a scheduled meal break every day that we leave for as soon as the last customer leaves, whether it be on the dot or a few minutes after lunch starts. However, everyone is required to be back in the department and ready to work before our lunch break is over. Anyone not present when we roll up the windows gets written up and could eventually be terminated.
They’re not paying us when the break isn’t a full 30 minutes yet they expect us to be back before our break is even over. If I weren’t a student that’s basically living paycheck to paycheck I’d want to look into it legally but there’s not much I can do besides deal with it. I work from 9-7:30 4 days/wk and don’t get paid for that 30 minutes when I’m technically hitting overtime since it’s not a full lunch. Any inputs?