Tea breaks...paid , unpaid or illegal practice?

mamabuddah

Employee handbook states:

Work up to 4 hrs...no tea break
Work over 4hrs...entitled to paid 15 min tea break

Employer then produces rota:

Start time: 08:45 end time: 13:00 hrs worked 4

So basically, rostered to be at work for 4hrs 15mins
Only paid for 4 hrs
But given unpaid tea break.

1) what if you don't want a tea break, it is only a 4 hr shift
2) if you're rostered for over 4 hrs you should have a paid tea break.
3) adding 15 mins to start or end of shift is to facilitate employer
4) can employees be forced to take a tea break (unpaid)

Any ideas? Look forward to comments.

Zeitgeist

1) you don't have to take it but you must be paid for 4h 15m regardless.
2) yes, you are correct
3) yes, you are correct
4) no, but you are entitled to one

getmore4less

You need to get the rules clarified.

Work and rostered are not the same thing.

There is no requirement to pay voluntary working of unpaid breaks.

sangie595

Zeitgeist wrote: »

1) you don't have to take it but you must be paid for 4h 15m regardless.
2) yes, you are correct
3) yes, you are correct
4) no, but you are entitled to one

No. This would be entirely wrong!

1) It doesn't matter how long you work, if the employer says you have a tea break then you have a tea break; and if they say it is unpaid, then it is unpaid.

2) No again. Nobody has a right to paid breaks. If you work six hours or more then by law you must have 20 minutes, which can be unpaid, and should fall somewhere in the middle of a shift, not at the beginning or end. Anything in addition to that is up to the employer

3) irrelevant

4) Yes.

If you have to have tea break, have a tea break. If toy don't want to, that's fine - but you don't have a right to be paid for that 15 minutes, so you may as well.

Masomnia

What are your contracted hours and have they changed with the rota?

When I redraft handbooks I'm more careful with wording than your employers obviously are.

Can you be forced to take a break? Probably yes. If your contract states you work 9 - 1 every day and they rota you for 8.45 - 1 then you might have a case. If it's more vague than that then they can ask you to work whenever really.

Have a chat with your manager and see if you can skip the break and work through. Otherwise, I'd be making sure I take it and have the full 15 minutes.

mamabuddah

Blimey, I didn't think I would see so many different responses....

Sangie595: the handbook states 4 hrs no break, over 4 hrs, paid tea break, how does this tie in with what you're saying?

Get more for less: can you explain the difference between work and rostered....I took it the employer can only dictate when you are "on site" to work, they are defining the hours you're meant to be there? Why would they roster you to be on site for any other reason than to work?

TELLIT01

sangie595 wrote: »

No. This would be entirely wrong!

1) It doesn't matter how long you work, if the employer says you have a tea break then you have a tea break; and if they say it is unpaid, then it is unpaid.

2) No again. Nobody has a right to paid breaks. If you work six hours or more then by law you must have 20 minutes, which can be unpaid, and should fall somewhere in the middle of a shift, not at the beginning or end. Anything in addition to that is up to the employer

3) irrelevant

4) Yes.

If you have to have tea break, have a tea break. If toy don't want to, that's fine - but you don't have a right to be paid for that 15 minutes, so you may as well.

You seem to be missing the main point. The OP says that their break is a paid one. I don't think the company can then just decide not to pay it.
I do agree that if the period between start of shift and end of shift is 4hr 15 minutes, and the employer says they will only pay 4 hours, the OP should only work 4 hours and take the break.

getmore4less

You need it clarifying as the wording does not exclude 4hr work and an unpaid break.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

TELLIT01 wrote: »

You seem to be missing the main point. The OP says that their break is a paid one. I don't think the company can then just decide not to pay it.
I do agree that if the period between start of shift and end of shift is 4hr 15 minutes, and the employer says they will only pay 4 hours, the OP should only work 4 hours and take the break.

No, they are working for 4 hours. Up to 4 hours there is no paid tea break. They have decided to impose an unpaid tea break of 15 minutes, but the OP is still working for 4 hours.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

getmore4less wrote: »

You need it clarifying as the wording does not exclude 4hr work and an unpaid break.

I would say that it has been clarified by what they are being asked to do.

[Deleted User]

The statutory time limit used to be 4 hours when I was at work. As part of an annual pay rise one year our tea break entitlement had been conceded by the unions, and our hours were 8:30-12:15 and 13:15-17:00 in order to circumvent the law, on condition that we were free to drink at our desks whilst we worked.

Just to complicate the issue, you can't get AQAP/ISO 9000 approval if there is food/drink consumed at the workplace, so in production areas they got a free 10 minute tea break anyway, but the engineering labs where I worked weren't classed as a production area, so we drank at the desk.