TL;DR: Title.
At some point some 4×10 employees were advised to take a 75 minute break and 3×15 minute breaks throughout their 10 hour shift, a total of 120 minutes, or 4×2=8 hours of break a week, resulting in 32 hours of work. However, 5×8 employees get one 60 minute break, thus 5×1=5 hours of break a week, 35 hours of work.
It should be noted that not all employees have been advised this way. Some of the more senior 4×10 employees only take 4×1 hours break a week, so they work even more: 36 hours a week.
I realized this when one of the 4×10 people I train shared their recent paperwork with me, where this was outlined. When I reached out to HR about this, the HR person said that they only recently found out about this, and that they will be overhauling the break policy in a few months. They told me that I can start following the same break policy as the people working 32 hours.
This didn't sit right with me because a person shouldn't have to chance upon finding this out and get permission to take an equitable amount of break time for doing so: it should be publicly announced, immediately, IMO. I informed HR of this and I didn't get a response.
I took the liberty of contacting a few other employees I knew who were 4×10 and taking just 1 hour a day, because they are the ones getting fucked over the hardest. However, I decided to let HR do the right thing and come forward with this info themselves; I didn't think it would be appropriate for me to publicize this.
It has been 2 weeks since then and they have not come forward. This has probably been going on for at least 6+ months. I get a bit upset thinking about how many extra hours I've worked than my junior employees for roughly the same pay, and certainly the same amount of hours compensation (we all get paid based on a 40 hour work week).
Is this wage theft? What would you do, assuming you love the job otherwise and want to keep it?
I'm planning on talking to my boss about this during a planned upcoming meeting (I'm not sure they are even aware but I think they must be), but I'm a bit torn. I don't want to cause others to lose their extra break time. But I also don't think it's fair for me to work 3 hours more a week, every week, for 6 months, with no additional compensation.
Thanks for reading, all opinions welcome.