Lunch Breaks

[gandydancer]

If you are ordered to work through your lunch, do so. Work as directed first, grieve and/or file a complaint later. "Later" means ASAP. Here in Nor Cal the Rider (Article 19, section 3) says you can be ordered to work up to half your one hour lunch but must be paid at the overtime rate for that time. State law (actually, State Dept of Employment Order 2001 for the Transportation Industry) guarantees you a 30 minute lunch, but the remedy is a financial penalty that the company must pay you for having denied you that lunch, plus the company can be fined and/or enjoined by the DOEmp. If UPS is fined or enjoined by the state as a result of your supervisors actions he will be out on his ass so fast he won't have time to pull up his pants.

 

[tourists24]

Simple answer... take your lunch... That lunch time is yours and management cannot take it from you. It is not the driver's fault for service failures simply for taking a lunch.

Normally I would say work now, grieve later; but not if this takes away your lunch time. No way a punishment will stand for taking your lunch. Do everything you can to let management know that you will not be able to get to all your business stops so they can make arrangements to get everything covered

 

[gandydancer]

Insubordination is a firing offense. "Work as directed unless it is 1)illegal 2)unsafe 3)immoral." An order which subjects the company only to paying you a penalty for violating a regulation is probably not, in this sense, "illegal". You'll probably get your job back, probably with back pay. You really want to find out for sure? How much do you trust your union, anyway?

 

[BigBrownSanta]

Okay guys and gals, here a question for you.

I was told from my center manager that you could not take your lunch break if it would cause service failures. I have to work as directed and grieve later. How much of this is true?

Let's say for example your a swing driver and you get and extra split of buisness on your route for the day. Now you know the route already has enough buisness on it already without the split not do get a lunch break until the end of your day. What do you do?

IMO, your center manager is telling you that you are not required to take a lunch. That's a gift. Unless you really want to waste a full hour unpaid, I would suggest stopping for say 20 minutes to eat then continue your route and get home 40 minutes earlier than you would have.

If the center manager says you still have to show a full hour lunch, then I would work as directed, then file to be paid for the time you worked off the clock. If that grievance doesn't get you paid, I would then report it to the state Department of Labor. There are laws that say you must be paid for all hours worked.

There are other ways to fix this also. You could take your full hour lunch after your last air delivery. There's no way to connect a lunch at 10 am to missed businesses at 5 pm without making a really big stretch. Send a message about 3 pm to let them know you will have missed pieces.

 

[brownmonster]

No send a message early that you will be taking a lunch and you will have missed unless they send someone in the next 4 hours to help you. Now you aggravated the supe and the guy next to you. The more people that are aggravated the better chance of fixing the problem.

 

[ikoi62]

No send a message early that you will be taking a lunch and you will have missed unless they send someone in the next 4 hours to help you. Now you aggravated the supe and the guy next to you. The more people that are aggravated the better chance of fixing the problem.

brownmonster is right send a message.
while it is right to worry about the customer and service..poor planing on you managements part (over dispatch) does not mean you should put your health in jeopardy.
for every 6 drivers that don't take a lunch thats 1 route not put in the lineup. it may not seem like much when your in your 20's but by the time you hit your mid 30's to 40's you will wish they had more routes in so you can have time to take lunch.
thats my opinion.
the truck i used to do had a max of 90 stops a day,and i took a full hour lunch everyday.and i was in everyday by 600pm. today the same truck is up to 125-130 because the new driver decided to run and gun and skip lunch everyday,he gets in at close to 8pm.
his customers suffer mine didn't.

 

[New Englander]

brownmonster is right send a message.
while it is right to worry about the customer and service..poor planing on you managements part (over dispatch) does not mean you should put your health in jeopardy.
for every 6 drivers that don't take a lunch thats 1 route not put in the lineup. it may not seem like much when your in your 20's but by the time you hit your mid 30's to 40's you will wish they had more routes in so you can have time to take lunch.
thats my opinion.
the truck i used to do had a max of 90 stops a day,and i took a full hour lunch everyday.and i was in everyday by 600pm. today the same truck is up to 125-130 because the new driver decided to run and gun and skip lunch everyday,he gets in at close to 8pm.
his customers suffer mine didn't.

I seriously doubt it's because of his lunch. We've had several things happen fairly recently that caused stops to bump up. IE removed the "on paper" time we got. PAS and EDD etc.......

 

[browniehound]

Here is what I don't like. We are given an hour lunch break everyday. We are required to take according to my center manager. That's fine, I can live with that.

What I can't live with is being told to take a certain amount at lunch time and the rest at the end of the day to make service on our packages.

It gets under my skin that he just won't pay us for the time not taken. We give something up by not taking our full hour to make service to our customers, so I think he should give something up by paying us for the time not taken.

The company wants us to take a certain amount at 6 pm? Thats not lunch to me. Normal people eat lunch from 11-2. I can promise you that I can count on my hand (I only have 1 finger on my right hand, lol) the number of companies in this country that would make their employees sit in the cafeteria at 6pm just to finish their "lunch time".

What is up with this???

You want me to work 35 minutes in the middle of the day for you and then you want me to sit idle at the end of the day to make up the time I lost at lunch working for you, when I could be home instead?

Something is wrong here. Does anyone else agree?

 

[New Englander]

Here is what I don't like. We are given an hour lunch break everyday. We are required to take according to my center manager. That's fine, I can live with that.

What I can't live with is being told to take a certain amount at lunch time and the rest at the end of the day to make service on our packages.

It gets under my skin that he just won't pay us for the time not taken. We give something up by not taking our full hour to make service to our customers, so I think he should give something up by paying us for the time not taken.

The company wants us to take a certain amount at 6 pm? Thats not lunch to me. Normal people eat lunch from 11-2. I can promise you that I can count on my hand (I only have 1 finger on my right hand, lol) the number of companies in this country that would make their employees sit in the cafeteria at 6pm just to finish their "lunch time".

What is up with this???

You want me to work 35 minutes in the middle of the day for you and then you want me to sit idle at the end of the day to make up the time I lost at lunch working for you, when I could be home instead?

Something is wrong here. Does anyone else agree?

Absolutely.....I still fight that battle daily. Even with my warning letter.

 

[BigBrownSanta]

My center must be run differently than how other centers are run. In my state, there is no law requiring the company to provide a lunch hour. With that said, I know for a fact that at least half of my center is not taking a full hour lunch everyday. In fact, district wide, there are no centers with 100% taking a full hour lunch. I've seen the report. We have no one getting any disciplinary action against them for skipping their lunch. We show what we take in the diad and that's it.

 

[LU710]

Here is what I don't like. We are given an hour lunch break everyday. We are required to take according to my center manager. That's fine, I can live with that.

What I can't live with is being told to take a certain amount at lunch time and the rest at the end of the day to make service on our packages.

It gets under my skin that he just won't pay us for the time not taken. We give something up by not taking our full hour to make service to our customers, so I think he should give something up by paying us for the time not taken.

The company wants us to take a certain amount at 6 pm? Thats not lunch to me. Normal people eat lunch from 11-2. I can promise you that I can count on my hand (I only have 1 finger on my right hand, lol) the number of companies in this country that would make their employees sit in the cafeteria at 6pm just to finish their "lunch time".

What is up with this???

You want me to work 35 minutes in the middle of the day for you and then you want me to sit idle at the end of the day to make up the time I lost at lunch working for you, when I could be home instead?

Something is wrong here. Does anyone else agree?

I agree completly that there is a problem with your situation, but just out of curiousity what exactly does your contract language say on meal period in your area?

 

[gandydancer]

I agree completly that there is a problem with your situation, but just out of curiousity what exactly does your contract language say on meal period in your area?

In NorCal the Supplemental, Article 22, Section 5, reads "The lunch period shall be not less than one-half (1/2) hour or more than one (1) hour in duration. The lunch period shall commence not less than four (4) hours after the employee starts work, and shall be completed not later than six (6) hours after the commencement of the employee's work. If the employee is directed to take a one-half (1/2) hour lunch, the remaining one-half (1/2) hour will be paid at the over-tuime rate." California Dept of Employment Order 2001 for the Tranport industry guarantees a 1/2 hour unpaid meal break, with a second after about 10 hours I believe.

In any case, browniehound's center manager is feeding him a line of bull. Meal time is unpaid. No way he can be forced to hang around the cafeteria unpaid off the clock. Sheesh! And I guarantee you your contract, and probably state law, says you get a meal PERIOD, not a certain amount of time off the clock which your manager can break into a random number of five minute chunks for his own convenience.

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

Simple answer... take your lunch... That lunch time is yours and management cannot take it from you. It is not the driver's fault for service failures simply for taking a lunch.

Normally I would say work now, grieve later; but not if this takes away your lunch time. No way a punishment will stand for taking your lunch. Do everything you can to let management know that you will not be able to get to all your business stops so they can make arrangements to get everything covered

WRONG. Again, regionally, the langauge here says MANAGEMENT CAN TAKE YOUR LUNCH HOUR AWAY FROM YOU. Will you please stop feeding misinformation?

 

[gandydancer]

WRONG. Again, regionally, the langauge here says MANAGEMENT CAN TAKE YOUR LUNCH HOUR AWAY FROM YOU. Will you please stop feeding misinformation?

Pay attention to the man. The language he's quoted says that in NE they can take away your unpaid hour and give you a paid 20 min break in return. Only thing in question, in my mind, is whether he's right that it pushes your guarantee up to 9 hr. I don't see where it says that the hour they worked you through your break doesn't count towards your guarantee.

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

Pay attention to the man. The language he's quoted says that in NE they can take away your unpaid hour and give you a paid 20 min break in return. Only thing in question, in my mind, is whether he's right that it pushes your guarantee up to 9 hr. I don't see where it says that the hour they worked you through your break doesn't count towards your guarantee.

I already quoted the supplmenent up here.

Quoting again: "Any employee who is ordered to work during any part of his meal period shall be paid for the full meal period and shall be allowed and must take 20 minutes to eat lunch and such time will be considered time worked. Any employee ordered to work any part of their meal period will be guaranteed nine (9) hours paid for that day"

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

Now surely, you can insubordinate and take your hour if management requests that you continue working. That's your own perrogative. I'm sure all this language varies region to region, also, so it's best you check your own supplements!

 

[steeltoe]

Insubordination is a firing offense. "Work as directed unless it is 1)illegal 2)unsafe 3)immoral." An order which subjects the company only to paying you a penalty for violating a regulation is probably not, in this sense, "illegal". You'll probably get your job back, probably with back pay. You really want to find out for sure? How much do you trust your union, anyway?

What supplement has Insubordination as a firing offense? Not to try and change the subject, but here in the Souhtern Region, we do not have insubordination as a fireable offense.

 

[tourists24]

WRONG. Again, regionally, the langauge here says MANAGEMENT CAN TAKE YOUR LUNCH HOUR AWAY FROM YOU. Will you please stop feeding misinformation?

Only misinformation for your region. The language in my supplement (and the majority of other supplements) does NOT allow mgt to take your lunch away. The only thing wrong was I should've put which supplement I fell under when giving the information.

 

[gandydancer]

I already quoted the supplmenent up here.

Quoting again: "Any employee who is ordered to work during any part of his meal period shall be paid for the full meal period and shall be allowed and must take 20 minutes to eat lunch and such time will be considered time worked. Any employee ordered to work any part of their meal period will be guaranteed nine (9) hours paid for that day"

I stand corrected.

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

It's very dumbfounding all the supplement angles and spins on each issue.

The contract says lunch is to be taken between 4th and 5th hour. If management will not allow you to, then technically they are breaking the contract and forcing you to work your lunch. Therefore, anyone (at least in NE) that works the 4th to 5th hour technically should be filing away and recieving a 20 minute paid lunch and automatic 9 hours.

Browniehound, you're almost better off just taking the hour between your 4th and 5th and respectfully tell your center manager or on-car "Take my lunch away and pay me for guaranteed 9 hours and a 20 minute paid lunch if you can't afford me that" when they will not allow it.. What's the point of taking part of your lunch at 6pm? All it does is hold you up from going home or doing what you have to do earlier than you would have, and fits into managements hands by allowing a poorly planned route/day that doesn't allow you or anyone a normal lunch time. Maybe I'm not thinking this through as logically as possible, but that's what I see.