Q: Is it legal to only be given a 25 minute uninterrupted lunch break?
I'm allowed 25 minutes to an uninterrupted lunch break. At the 25th minute, a buzzer sounds and my coworkers and I are supposed to make our way back to our work stations within those five minutes and get back to work. At the 30th minute, the buzzer sounds again and that's when our lunch break officially ends, even though those thirty minutes haven't been uninterrupted.
A: No. You are entitled to a 30 minute uninterrupted meal break. If you have to return to your station 5 minutes early or otherwise do things at your employer's direction, you do no have a complete 30 minute break. Please note if you are still free to engage in activities of your choice until the 30 minute buzzer, then your employer is complying with the law.
Maya L. Serkova agrees with this answer
A: You, and your co-workers, are entitled to a "net" 30 minute lunch break free from your employer's control. This means if it takes 5 minutes to get to the assigned lunch area and 5 minutes to get back you get 40 minutes. If the employer fails to provide you a proper lunch period then you, and each of your co-workers, are entitled to one hour of pay at your regular rate for each day you do not get a regular lunch period. This sounds like a good class action case to me. Before you sue your employer, you need to get as many of your co-workers to provide you contact information and agree to testify about the situation. I would suggest that you take some videos on your phone, showing how long it takes to get to lunch and how long the lunch period actually is. You can bet that the employer will have paperwork showing you were provided a 30 minute lunch break so you need to disprove that.
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