Hello: are there laws about lunch and other breaks. If I work from 9-6, what am I entitled to for lunch and breaks. ALso, after how many hours am I legally allowed to have a lunch break. As you may figure out from my tone, my boss takes her lunch break first and many times I am not able to take a break until 2 or 3 which is very tough.

You are entitled to one 30 minute unpaid break if you work 6 hours or more. The law does not go so far as to dictate when you must take it.

The 30 min. meal break must be taken within 6 hrs. of beginning work.

As long as by that, Betty, you mean that you can take the break at the conclusion of 6 hours, I'll agree with you.

That's what I mean. If they work 6 hrs. or more, 8 hrs. for example they can't take it at the end of hr. #7 but they can take it at the end of the 6th hr. Employers must provide a 30-min. meal break to all employees within six hours of beginning of work. Another meal break would have to be provided if the employee were required to work another 6 hrs. after resuming work. (per one of my references)



Mass Gen L.c. 149 statutes 100 & 101

No person shall be required to work for more than six hours during a calendar day without an interval of at least thirty minutes for a meal. Any employer, superintendent, overseer or agent who violates this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than three hundred nor more than six hundred dollars.

The preceding section shall not apply to iron works, glass works, paper mills, letterpress establishments, print works, bleaching works, or dyeing works; and the attorney general, if it is proved to his satisfaction that in any other factories or workshops or mechanical establishments it is necessary, **by reason of the continuous nature of the processes or of special circumstances affecting such establishments**, including collective bargaining agreements to exempt them from the preceding section and that such exemption can be made without injury to the persons affected thereby, may grant such exemption as, in his discretion, seems necessary.