I work at Lowe's in Kentucky and our HR said that if we miss our lunches they will take off 30 min off each day, this is an hourly job and we dont get paid lunches. Can they do that and is that even legal? They said they can do that without even telling us.
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It's an empty threat, they would just write you up for not taking a lunch that they mandate and then fire you after a few times
There is nothing to come out against. Its already illegal. What it needs is a class action suit.
My partner is an RN. Hospitals and nursing homes routinely short staff entire wings and floors. Critical care units included. Then supervisors will take a lunch in the office in sight of nurses who can’t get a break because there is no coverage scheduled. Then at the end of every week the HR person goes on the system and deducts a half hour lunch from every 8 hour shift. When I told her to complain they said it was legal and also mandatory she take a lunch. They said her being SLOW was not a good reason to skip lunch. When she told them she would be abandoning her patients because no other nursing staff was scheduled she was told she was not being a “team player.”
This BS is happening everywhere in America.
Just a tip to Democrat candidates. If you want to win, just come out against this one thing.
Its sad that a manager actually thinks the employee not taking a lunch is the one breaking the law.... like.... if you dont take lunch you will get arrested.
It's against policy and the policy is written to make sure the company follows the law and associates cant claim they were prevented from taking lunch by doing so voluntarily.
That being said, I knew an HR manager that would edit timecards to make it look like everyone was compliant even if they werent.
And sorry but no to the manager replying below, it is not illegal to not take a lunch. It is illegal for an employer not to let an employee take it. If an employee chooses not to take it, this could be characterized after the fact as their employer not allowing them to.
Employers thus steer very clear of that possibility and will make it against the rules not to take it.
Thing is if you tell me I need to find coverage to go and I can't find coverage and I'm swamped all day covering this department and that, you really didn't give me the ability to go, did you?
Unpaid wages for time worked is super super illegal. If they told you they would refuse to pay you for hours you put in, they are pointing a blunderbuss at both their feet.
No, they can't deduct for a lunch you didn't take. Yes you have to take it, unless told otherwise by your manager. It is easy to take a lunch, punch out and go to lunch. Some people seem to never be able to go to lunch or leave on time and of course it all has to be cut usually on friday or whatever the last day of the week the employee is scheduled. Sometimes this is legit, usually it is not and the employee is just building up time to get a short day.
If you work over 6 hours and do not take a lunch, you are violating the law. I have had to have conversations with employees about this. It gets documented, discussed and the next time it is a write-up. A company can not allow you to violate law and not reprimand you fornit.
you dont obey a law by breaking another, more serious, law. the only reason they do this is because it benefits the corporation. youll never see them breaking laws to benefit you!
i get the other side of the coin is that if you have refused to take lunches you might go into overtime or upset the stores allotted hours. however i cant be in favor of writing you up for not taking lunches either as these stores run so understaffed that for certain groups of workers it becomes very difficult to get all the work done and take a lunch..or even have the coverage to do so.
obviously if they can program the system to deduct a half hour they can also program the system to force you to leave a response as to why you didnt take a lunch that day and a box to check on whether you refused to take a lunch, took one but forgot to clock out or you werent allowed to take it.
can quickly document and deal with individual cases at the store level without just automatically stealing pay from people.
While it might be in their handbook that they will dock you for lunch, it seems like they are doing it to cover their *$$e$ to make it look like they gave you a lunch period. According to the Department of Workplace Standards, "Am I entitled to a meal period, and do I get paid for this time?
You are entitled to a reasonable period for a meal no sooner than the third nor later than the fifth hour of your work shift unless you and your employer have mutually agreed to some other arrangement. A duty-free meal period does not have to be paid."
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/kentucky-meal-rest-break-laws.html
incredibly illegal. i dont care how large a company you are...you better verify before you ever go in and tamper with an employees punches to reduce them. the burden should always be on the side of being above suspicion.....so to ever program a payroll system to automatically take away 30 minutes and call it a lunch break without the employee having made that punch is asking for lawsuits.
If you skip lunch and work 8 hours straight - you may leave after the 8 hours if you are not paid. Two stores were sued for firing employees that did just that. Check your state labor laws - if Lowes did that they wouldn't have had to pay out a couple of hundred thousand to make the suits go away .
Not legal in any state. Walmart was sued for this a number of years ago, and lost. Document everything, Call corporate, and talk to a lawyer.
I dont even have time to take one, they keep cutting hours and I'm the only person scheduled in my department so I'm behind all day on stuff I need to get done but then they also expect you to take a lunch
If you work you must be paid. But if you don’t take a break when you have been told to you can be fired.
Many timekeeping systems have built-in rules around unpaid lunch breaks. In many provinces/states there are employment laws stating that employees scheduled for over 5 hours must have a 30-minute unpaid break. Some systems are configured so that 30-minutes will be deducted from the daily total and employees are only responsible for punching in at the start and end of their shift. Other systems have an automatic deduction as a failsafe in case an employee misses one or both meal punches but actually takes the lunch break.
Every system I've worked with has an option for cancelling the meal break deduction. Usually it's dept supervisors or managers who has knowledge of whether the worker took the break or not who has to update the employee account. Depending on the system it can be a total pain.
From a company perspective, they are required to show that you were offered a break and provide a reasonable excuse if you don't elect to take it. If audited by labour boards/state boards they have to be able to support every instance where an employee missed a legally required break with notes and documentation in the system. Some systems require supervisors make the correction to an employee account but a manager has to approve the transaction. On the whole it can be a pain.
This doesn't excuse not being paid for time on the clock but in most cases it's an automatic deduction. You need to make sure your supervisor/manager is aware that you're skipping a break and get approval from them before working through a meal break. They can't correct what they aren't aware of. They may tell you to never skip meal breaks again which they are allowed to do.
Should you be reimbursed for breaks you previously worked through? Yes.