I have read several posts regarding lunches and breaks in the work place, but I need a clarification. I'm a nurse in a county hospitial for the past 4 years and we receive time and a half for weekends and holidays. When I hired in, I was told that unless I took a full 30 uninterrupted minutes lunch break, I should put no lunch and be paid for that time. Recently we have changed dept managers and nothing has been said about lunches. However, I have noticed that my paycheck has been short on weekend and holiday hours. I should also mention that we use a card swipe system for payroll and the emplyees are allowed to view their timecard by computer. I noticed that my timecard automatically has a specific lunch time already designated. I was not even aware of this until recently when I started viewing my timecard. There is no effort made or mentioned made to honor this designated lunch time as there is no coverage made available for that time. I have been putting no lunch on the time exception sheet and my manager has marked these exceptions of the sheet, but on my actual timecard Ihave noticed that my manager gives my a no lunch credit for weekdays, but leaves the specific lunch times on my timecard for weekends and holidays. My question is, can my employer not pay me for time I have worked through these timecard specific lunch breaks since in Ohio the employer is not required to provide lunches or breaks? Thanks

The fact that lunch breaks are not required by Ohio law has no bearing on the fact that you must be paid for all time worked.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.19.htm

I agree that they should have told you they reconfigured the system for automatic lunch deductions, so that you could go through the proper procedure (at the time) to have the automatic deduction deleted. You should ask now 1) how to do that and 2) when you will get paid for lunch breaks you did not get to take.