I've gone through most of the posts on this site and I've got a pretty good idea of the answer to my question but I just want to double check... My fiance works at a SC company as a help desk tech... She's currently an hourly employee... She works from 8:00am to 4:30pm... Company policy dictates a one lunch hour and two fifteen minute breaks for employees... The lunch hour is not paid, but the breaks are... Too avoid having techs off the phones on breaks during high call volume, the management team schedules the breaks back to back at the end of the day...

Yesterday, she was told she had to work through her lunch hour because they would be short staffed because four members of the team, picked by management, went to a company social... Even though she only technically works seven and half hours a day, she is paid for eight because of the breaks she gets on the drive home... That makes a forty hour week... I understand that she isnt entitled to the lunch hour by SC law... She should be entitled to one hour of over time pay though, right?

She is entitled to overtime pay if she works more than 40 hours over the course of the week.

Thanks a bunch!

If the employee is "on the clock" while driving home isn't the employer legally responsible in case of an accident. My employer requires us to clock out anytime we use our own vehicle for personal reasons so that they aren't liable for us in case something tragic happened? Just a curious thought!Thanks!

Your employer is not liable for anything injuries that may occur while you are taking care of personal issues in your own vehicle. There is no reason for them to allow you to take care of personal issues on the clock.

CBG,
My point was to address sallizar's issue in the original post that the employer allowed the two 15 minute "paid" breaks at the end of the day essentially meaning that her clock out time would be recorded as 5pm, when she actually was on the drive home when she left at 4:30pm. I think the courts would have an issue with that if it ever arose.

Since neither SC nor Federal law mandates that she receive any breaks at all, I don't agree. The DOL rarely objects to an employer providing more than they are required to by law.

I've gone through most of the posts on this site and I've got a pretty good idea of the answer to my question but I just want to double check... My fiance works at a SC company as a help desk tech... She's currently an hourly employee... She works from 8:00am to 4:30pm... Company policy dictates a one lunch hour and two fifteen minute breaks for employees... The lunch hour is not paid, but the breaks are... Too avoid having techs off the phones on breaks during high call volume, the management team schedules the breaks back to back at the end of the day...

Yesterday, she was told she had to work through her lunch hour because they would be short staffed because four members of the team, picked by management, went to a company social... Even though she only technically works seven and half hours a day, she is paid for eight because of the breaks she gets on the drive home... That makes a forty hour week... I understand that she isnt entitled to the lunch hour by SC law... She should be entitled to one hour of over time pay though, right?


Unless the law has changed in the last few years Federal requires a lunch break after 5 hours of work.

Mr. Stephens, no there is no such federal law. If you think there is, post a link it.

agreed. I would be most interested in seeing this, as it would shake one of my foundational beliefs in fed employment laws, which is fine, but I would like to see this before I adjust my management of the laws.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/breaks.htm

Not only is there no such law, as the above link shows, there never has been any such law. I've been in HR for over 25 years now, and at no time during that period has Federal law required any such thing.

I have been doing research about this subject due to issues at my workplace. Although I do not find any federal law about breaks, many individual states do have REQIREMENTS for meal breaks. Attatched is a link to the website that shows the states that have requirements, and what they are obligated to do.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/programs/whd/state/meal.htm#Washington

You completely correct, Jonesey. Several states DO have laws that address this issue. What the regulars in here were challenging last year on this thread was the claim that FEDERAL employment laws address this. People correctly challenged this knowing that federal law is silent on this issue and leaves it up to each state to decide for themselves. Except for one person who we fondly call "the state law lady" most of us may not know the specifics of the laws in all 50 states, but have a general concept of how they differ from state to state.

Correct. No one has ever denied that many states have such requirements. The issue in this thread, which as TMP points out was almost a year ago, was that FEDERAL law does not and never has. This is in contradiction of the poster who incorrectly claimed that Federal law required a lunch break after 5 hours of work.