I am a secretary for a very small company and work from 8 - 4:30. When I got hired, I was told that my lunch would entail doing errands for the company, i.e: getting the mail from the post office, go to the accountants to get payroll, and to another company we are contracted with for jobs, and rushing back to the office and wait for phone calls. (the previous secretary volunteered this arrangement.) I could sock her!

I was asked if that would work for me and I said we could try this and see how it worked. I started two years ago and have taken personal lunches about five times. I have told my employer that I would like to have personal lunches but he's worried we might miss very important phone calls and I suggested forwarding the phone calls to my cell phone.

I'm afraid he may get into trouble regarding this arrangement and I would like to let him know before it gets out of hand. I also understand that in Alaska, if we "work" 20 minutes into our lunch we are entitled for the full hour paid.

The state of Alaska does not require that you be given a meal break. It is entirely up to the employer whether to offer one or not.

There is no law requiring that you be paid for an hour if you work twenty minutes into a lunch break, if indeed your employer chooses to offer one. The only regulation is that IF you take a break of less than 20 minutes, it must be a paid break.

What about the errands I'm doing? I go do the errands at noon, come back to the office to have my lunch while answering phones. I was curious about that.

Sounds as if it would have to be paid time, but it's not violating any laws as long as you're paid.

cbg is correct, if you are running errands during your "lunch break", then that's work time and must be paid.