Mandatory Breaks in AZ
HRQ
2,849 Posts
Maybe I'm crazy, but I just can't find a reg addressing these issues;
My assistant went to a payroll class and the trainer stated that AZ employers are required to provide one 30 minute unpaid break for any employee who works at least 8 hours.
I've never heard of this and I can't find it anywhere. I wonder if she came from an industry, like manufacturing, where there may be special regulations.
The trainer also said some other weird stuff that I believe were her [b][i]interpretation[/i][/b] of the regs, or presenting practices that she just thinks are wise as if they are regulations.
Another example: she said AZ employers are not "allowed" to mail final paychecks to employees' last known addresses. She indicated we must require them to pick them up, and then if we don't hear from them we could mail them.
Can anyone shed light on this?
My assistant went to a payroll class and the trainer stated that AZ employers are required to provide one 30 minute unpaid break for any employee who works at least 8 hours.
I've never heard of this and I can't find it anywhere. I wonder if she came from an industry, like manufacturing, where there may be special regulations.
The trainer also said some other weird stuff that I believe were her [b][i]interpretation[/i][/b] of the regs, or presenting practices that she just thinks are wise as if they are regulations.
Another example: she said AZ employers are not "allowed" to mail final paychecks to employees' last known addresses. She indicated we must require them to pick them up, and then if we don't hear from them we could mail them.
Can anyone shed light on this?
Comments
A. When an employee is discharged from the service of an employer, he shall be paid wages due him within three working days or the end of the next regular pay period, whichever is sooner.
B. When an employee quits the service of an employer he shall be paid in the usual manner all wages due him no later than the regular payday for the pay period during which the termination occurred. If requested by the employee, such wages shall be paid by mail.
C. Every employer, including the state and its political subdivisions, shall pay wages or compensation due an employee under this section in lawful money of the United States by negotiable check, draft, money order or warrant, in the case of the state or any political subdivision, which can be immediately redeemed in cash at a bank or other financial institution, payable on demand or by deposit in a financial institution of employee's choice and dated not later than the day upon which the check, draft, money order or warrant is given, and not otherwise.
D. A person violating this section is guilty of a petty offense.
This statute doesn't explicitly say that an employer can't mail the checks, though it does say that an employee who quits "shall be paid in the usual manner." This probably means that if the usual manner is that you hand employees their checks in the workplace, you would hand the check to an employee who quit. Except that the "If requested by the employee, such wages shall be paid by mail," provision means that if the employee asks for the check by mail, the employer must send it; i.e., the employer can't require an employee to pick up his paycheck from the employer if he's requested that it be mailed.
Looks like the law is silent with respect to what you can do if the employee is discharged - seems that as long as the employee gets the paycheck by three days after termination (or by payday, if payday is less than three days after termination), it doesn't matter how it gets to the employee. You'd want to send it certified mail, though.
As far as I know, Arizona does not have any laws requiring meal breaks for employees, but I'm sure the Arizona department of labor (or whatever they call it in your state) could clear that up for you. They should be able to help answer the paycheck question as well.
It clearly does not say we "can't mail the check [i]unless[/i] specifically requested" by the employee (as advised by the trainer) rather I read that to mean we [b][i]must[/b][/i] mail it if requested by the employee.
Unfortunately, we have pretty high turnover, and a lot of our employees resign via job abandonment. We consider this voluntary resignation.
We have not created a policy to address handling of final checks for this, and currently, we advise the supervisors to mail the check to the last known address if the employee does not pick up the check within two weeks.
I will look further for the "break" issue.
Thanks again!
This is a link to a newletter put out by the Arizona Department of Labor.
A couple of pages in is a statement that says Arizona does not require employers to provide any breaks or even a lunch period.
I was confident about the "breaks" issue but am always willing to research again when challenged. I just couldn't find anything I didn't already know.
My assistant processes payroll and has no formal training in this area, so I jumped at the chance to send her to a half-day training that was not expensive. She DID learn quite a bit, but she also came back with quite a bit of "learning" that I took issue with. Before I whined to the training company, I figured I should verify my understanding of regs with people I trust before making an issue of it.
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