Working Hours / Lunch Break Query

onemanwenttomow

I am quite luck in my job as we do get good benefits. One of those benefits is that we get Time Off for hours worked outside the normal working hours (9-5) assuming it has been okayed by your line manager. I work in events, which are mainly done in the evenings and on weekends so I work a lot of overtime.

As I said before, my working hours are 9-5 and I get an hour lunch break so you'd think that was a 7 hour working day... but they actually count my lunch break as a work hour. My contract states that I work 40 hours a week and I am entitled to an hour lunch break every day and it says that on everybody's contracts. There is no doubt that they are including it my lunch break within those 40 hours.

My overtime is calculated hour for hour (i.e. if my event lasts for 2 hours after work, I get 2 hours to take offw whenever I like, subject to approval). However, because I technically work 8 hours a day I have to work 8 additional hours before I can take a day off. If I have accrued 7 hours and wanted to take a day off I'd have to do another one hour event in order to give me enough hours to take my lunch break off.... does that not seem strange to you?

I've never heard of anybody having a compulsory lunch break included as a working hour before. It seems utterly mental to me. Are they allowed to do this?

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Sounds to me like they pay you for the lunch break because 5 days multiplied by 8 hours is your 40 hours, so if they are saying you only have 7 hours TOIL built up then if you are paid for the full 8 hours a day and you want the full day off but only have 7 days TOIL then they are correct because your gaining an hour you are paid for.

KatrinaWaves

Seems overall like a pretty good deal...

gettingtheresometime

onemanwenttomow wrote: »

I've never heard of anybody having a compulsory lunch break included as a working hour before. It seems utterly mental to me. Are they allowed to do this? They keep saying to people that it is a benefit as we are getting paid for our lunch breaks but we are all salaried so it makes no difference to our pay if they included it or not!

Thanks in advance.

I think you've got the wrong end of a very nice stick.


If you had to work 8 hours a day & had an unpaid hour's lunch you'd have to finish at 6pm assuming a start time of 9am


If you had to work 8 hours a day, of which an hour was paid and included in that 8 hours you'd finish at 5pm , again assuming a start time of 9am.


So you only work 7hours a day effective but get paid for 8.

Exodi

onemanwenttomow wrote: »

I've never heard of anybody having a compulsory lunch break included as a working hour before. It seems utterly mental to me. Are they allowed to do this? They keep saying to people that it is a benefit as we are getting paid for our lunch breaks but we are all salaried so it makes no difference to our pay if they included it or not!

Thanks in advance.

I'm somewhat flabbergasted you hint this is an unfavourable arrangement to the extent I genuinely don't know what to say. You want to take an hour unpaid every single day so it's easier to accrue TOIL?

So I'm actually adding something, your comment regarding salary is misguided. If the business was to announce that all lunch breaks would be unpaid tomorrow, your salary would go down as salaries are calculated as (work hours per week x 52)/12. If they wanted to keep your salary the same, you'd have to work an extra hour every day as gettingtheresometime's said.

System

onemanwenttomow wrote: »

I've never heard of anybody having a compulsory lunch break included as a working hour before. It seems utterly mental to me. Are they allowed to do this? They keep saying to people that it is a benefit as we are getting paid for our lunch breaks but we are all salaried so it makes no difference to our pay if they included it or not!

Thanks in advance.

Yes they are allowed to pay you for your breaks. I get paid for mine. Like others I can't believe that you're finding this a problem. There are millions of workers in this country who would love to have paid breaks.

jobbingmusician

You HAVE to have a break. The law says that anyone who works over 6 hours has to have a minimum break of 20 minutes. It is extremely common for employers to require that this minimum is in fact extended to an hour.

System

Exodi wrote: »

I'm somewhat flabbergasted you hint this is an unfavourable arrangement to the extent I genuinely don't know what to say. You want to take an hour unpaid every single day so it's easier to accrue TOIL?

So I'm actually adding something, your comment regarding salary is misguided. If the business was to announce that all lunch breaks would be unpaid tomorrow, your salary would go down as salaries are calculated as (work hours per week x 52)/12. If they wanted to keep your salary the same, you'd have to work an extra hour every day as gettingtheresometime's said.

Does OP hope to accrue a full day off every one and and half weeks because of it? I would perhaps think about having my break unpaid every day if it meant I can have a four day week every other day....

nicechap

onemanwenttomow wrote: »

I am quite luck in my job as we do get good benefits. One of those benefits is that we get Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) for hours worked outside the normal working hours (9-5) assuming it has been okayed by your line manager. I work in events, which are mainly done in the evenings and on weekends so I rack up ALOT of TOIL.

As I said before, my working hours are 9-5 and I get an hour lunch break so you'd think that was a 7 hour working day... but they actually count my lunch break as a work hour. My contract states that I work 40 hours a week and I am entitled to an hour lunch break every day and it says that on everybody's contracts. There is no doubt that they are including it my lunch break within those 40 hours.

My TOIL is calculated hour for hour (i.e. if my event lasts for 2 hours after work, I get 2 hours TOIL which I can take whenever I like, subject to approval). However, because I technically work 8 hours a day I have to work 8 additional hours before I can take a day off. If I have accrued 7 hours and wanted to take a day off I'd have to do another one hour event in order to give me enough hours to take my lunch break off.... does that not seem strange to you?

I've never heard of anybody having a compulsory lunch break included as a working hour before. It seems utterly mental to me. Are they allowed to do this? They keep saying to people that it is a benefit as we are getting paid for our lunch breaks but we are all salaried so it makes no difference to our pay if they included it or not!

Thanks in advance.

Ask your boss for the 7 hours time in lieu and tell them you’ll be in to take your paid lunch break as usual.

Alternatively take 2 half days after your paid lunches.

ohreally

jobbingmusician wrote: »

You HAVE to have a break. The law says that anyone who works over 6 hours has to have a minimum break of 20 minutes. It is extremely common for employers to require that this minimum is in fact extended to an hour.

There is no compulsion on an employee to take the break only for the employer to provide the break.

TELLIT01

ohreally wrote: »

There is no compulsion on an employee to take the break only for the employer to provide the break.

That's not the point in this situation. The OP is paid for all 8 hours of their working day, including the 1 hour lunch break. There is logic in the OP's argument that as they only actually work 7 hours, it should only require 7 hours TOIL accrual to get a day off. Equally there is logic in the employer's argument that staff are paid for 8 hours therefore they require 8 hours TOIL in order to take a day off.
The only point that really matters is that the employers set the rules.