Unpaid breaks required in New York?
Kemp
7 Posts
I've recently been assigned HR responsibility for two facilities (one warehouse, one manufacturing) in New York. A manager in the warehouse is telling me that in New York all employees must be given two paid 15 minute breaks in addition to their unpaid lunch break each day. In that facility employees have not been given these breaks in the past because they are allowed to take a paid break whenever it is needed (within reason). Can anyone familiar with New York law tell me if my manager is correct?
Comments
Check out this webpage, and there exists a similar fact sheet for rest periods, just could not readily find it.
Time spent by employees engaged in incidental activities may or may not have to be treated as compensable working time. In general, time spent in activities primarily for the benefit of the employer is compensable, while time spent primarily for the benefit of the employee is not. Specific applications of this are detailed in this chapter.
Rest Periods
Rest periods are considered to be primarily for the benefit of the employer; thus employers must compensate employees for coffee and snack breaks of less than 20 minutes.
Meal Periods
A meal period of at least 30 minutes during which the employee is completely relieved of all duties does not qualify for compensation. Employees are not relieved if they must perform duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. For example, an office employee required to eat at the desk or a factory worker required to be at a machine is working while eating. If employees are otherwise completely freed from duties during the meal period, employers are not required to permit employees to leave the premises. Employers are not required to compensate employees for infrequent job-related interruptions of short duration during the meal period.
Q. Must meal periods and breaks be provided to employees?
A. Employees who work a shift of more than six hours starting before 11 a.m. and continuing until 2 p.m. must have an uninterrupted lunch period of at least 30 minutes between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Meal periods are not counted as work time, thus employers need not pay for that time.
Other breaks, such as for rest periods or coffee breaks, are not required. If a break (of up to 20 minutes) is permitted, then it should be paid as working time.
However, you should have a written rule about breaks. We have two ten minute breaks a day at specified times. Anyone who takes longer will be warned (it always takes only one warning so I don't know what we would do with someone who constantly flaunts the rule). We have on occasion caught smokers who tried to take additional breaks while still on the clock (leaving buildings where there are security cameras at every entrance is not too smart). This has more serious consequences.
Bottom line, if the employee is required to work, then the company must pay regardless of the shift, breaks, including meal breaks. The time clock will trump any manager's words everytime. If the total time exceeds 40 hours in a work week then you must day them the overtime $0llars.
Welcome to the forum, glad you made your first post, there is alot of good and honest help here among these keys on this board so don't hesitate to jump in anytime you have a burning need.
PORK