Hourly Employees, Automatic Deduction of Time for Lunch Breaks

[robtr3]

Does anyone know what Federal or state laws speak to if and how employers may subtract time from an employee's hours worked for an assumed lunch break?

In my specific situation, I'm an salaried blue-collar non-managerial employee in Maryland who qualifies for overtime per federal regulations. I clock in and out on a computerized employee time clock. My job requires me to report to my branch, clock in, pick up a set of service orders, set out into the field to complete them, return to the branch, and clock out. While I'm out in the field, there is nothing preventing me from stopping for lunch (other than a workplace culture that puts considerable pressure on my peers and me to generate revenue through production--enough pressure that most of us simply forgo lunch or eat it on the run), nor is there anything compelling me to take a lunch break; should I choose to take a lunch break I can't clock out as I'm too far away from my branch for that to be feasible. Today I learned that my employer automatically deducts half an hour from my hours worked each day for a lunch break; I only came on board 2 1/2 weeks ago and was not informed of this at the time I was hired.

I'm aware that this practice is by no means unheard of, but I wonder if there are rules governing this practice, including if, when, and how the employee must be made aware of it? Like I said, I've been there for two weeks and only found out after I noticed things not adding up and approached a supervisor to question it.

[Pattymd]

I answered this question in the other forum where you asked it. In the future, please post your question and follow-up info in one forum only. Posting it in more than one place can result in posts where responders don't have all the information. Thanks.