A little company history

I work at a small company which has just gone through a merger with another small company bringing the total number of employees up to about 15. The company that I originally worked for only consisted of 3 guys and 2 more where hired into our department when we merged.

Now every time any of us take a break, we are talked to about it saying that if we are on break, we need to stay hidden in our offices. I got bold one day and asked "Isn't it a law that we get 10 minutes for every 4 hours worked?" The reply was that that doesn't apply to people with a degree.

I've searched all over the Department Of Labor's website as well as the KY Labor Law Site (Which is just a bunch of unlabled, hard to navigate statutes) and am unable to come up with this as a valid answer to my question.

The only thing that I can find is the KY Wages & Hours Poster.

Any help on this topic would be appreciated as it was completely embarassing to be shot down in front of the entire company in a meeting for opening my mouth about something a few days before that I hadn't researched.

Thanks,

Chris

I've kept up the search for who is right and have found that the definition of an Employee in Kentucky is 337.010 (2)(a) "Employee is any person employed by or suffered or permitted to work for an emloyer, but shall not include: 2. Any individual employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, supervisory, or professional capacity, or in the capacity of outside salesman, or as an outside collector as the terms aredefined by administrative regulations of the commissioner;

The meeting we had discussing break periods did include a statement about the degree holding employees are professionals. Does this exclude us from the Kentucky Labor Law regarding Rest Periods?

Thanks,

Chris

Employers are not required to provide an exempt employee with a rest period, a meal period and/or overtime. The definition of an exempt employee is fairly complex; however, in general, an exempt employee are persons who are performing "non-manual" work for the employer. This type of work include things such as requiring minimal supervisory overview, using discretion in his/her work and/or supervisory responsibilities. Exempt employees can also encompass outside sales persons - persons who spend much of their time out of the office.
In addition, there are a number of other categories/factors that causes an employee to be classified as exempt.

You can read about exemption at: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/screen75.asp

Thanks for explaining that. I didn't realize that the only people covered by this law are people with labor intensive jobs.

Thanks,

Chris