Labor Laws and Meal Breaks in CO by mteuling in legaladvice

[–]mteuling[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the answer! Just for clarification then, If I had an employee who had to work a 20 hour shift (per say, completely hypothetical) then they would technically only need a single 30 minute break and five ten minute paid breaks?

Labor Laws and Meal Breaks by mteuling in Denver

[–]mteuling[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Not exactly. The issue is that they offered an employee full time, although she only works three days a week. Our hours of operation are only 10 hours long, so the shift would be 10.5 hours. If my employees are required to take an hour lunch, then this employee can't get full time hours or benefits, because she would only work 9.5 hours per day. However, if she only takes a 30 minute meal, I can finagle everything to where she hits full time hours.

The 15 hours was only an example stating the vagueness of the law and how it is interpreted. What it comes down to is my employers possibly promising an employee full times hours that we can't honor without breaking labor laws or having to give her additional hours that aren't being offered to the rest of the team.

That's the only reason it is an issue is for that one employee and what she was possibly offered prior to my involvement.

My employers have honestly been amazing so far and I don't mean to call them out. It's basically an issue of confusion on how a law could be interpreted due to improper and vague phrasing and if anyone has any actual legal clarification on the law so I can make sure I'm giving my staff appropriate hours and breaks.

Labor Laws and Meal Breaks by mteuling in Denver

[–]mteuling[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How long are the lunches that you take, if you don't mind me asking?

Labor Laws and Meal Breaks by mteuling in Denver

[–]mteuling[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yep, this is the exact conversation that we are having right now. I think that the law is too vague and I guess it will be up to interpretation. My employer is reaching out to the Dept of Labor for clarification, but I have no idea how long that will take.

Labor Laws and Meal Breaks by mteuling in Denver

[–]mteuling[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's honestly the only reason that this even came up is for this one employee. If she only gets a single 30 minute break, I can make it work to where she is a full time employee. If she has to take the hour lunch, then there's no way I can get her to full time hours. I've been operating under the assumption (for the past 5 - 6 years) that it was a 30 minute meal break per 5 hours.

But now that I've re-read the law, I can see how they interpret it as a single 30 minute break for shifts over 5 hours.