Breaks at work

ra0044

Hi.

I was wondering whether it is mandatory to take a lunch break on an 8 hour shift.

Basically what it amounts to is a colleeague of my brother has agreed with his company to skip his breaks and finish work an hour or so early under the pretence of helping the company out by reducing downtime. Now my brothers compny are hailing him as a model employee and hinting others do the same.

I was under the impression that lunch beaks were mandatory and the company should enforce the taking of breaks.

Any help welcome as my brother feels his colleague just wants to get home early and eats lunch whilst working so not missing out on a lunch as such aswell as his " cigarette breaks " and is undermining the other employees position that they should take breaks.

Thanks

seamus

Breaks are an entitlement, not a requirement to the best of my knowledge. As the breaks are unpaid, the employee can choose to waive them and continue working, but the entitlement must always remain.
While the employee and employer can enter an agreement where the employee does not take his breaks, on any given day the employee is entitled to take his break if he so feels. That is, he cannot sign away his entitlement to a break, he can simply just not avail of it.

This may not apply in some environments where working non-stop for a long period of time would pose a safety hazard.

To a certain extent in all cases the employer would be obliged to take health and safety into account and require the employee to take an unpaid break if they felt that the employee was suffering.
The employer would also need to be careful because the employee could easily turn around and claim that the employer wouldn't allow him to take breaks.

Legally the employer cannot put any pressure on other employees to adopt the same approach and certainly cannot penalise anyone for not doing so.

jonnybangbang

As far as I know, breaks are mandatory, but when you take them are not. Which is why the college of your brother is able to leave early when skipping his lunch.

I

testicle

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0020/sec0012.html#sec12

12.—(1) An employer shall not require an employee to work for a period of more than 4 hours and 30 minutes without allowing him or her a break of at least 15 minutes.

(2) An employer shall not require an employee to work for a period of more than 6 hours without allowing him or her a break of at least 30 minutes; such a break may include the break referred to in subsection (1).

(3) The Minister may by regulations provide, as respects a specified class or classes of employee, that the minimum duration of the break to be allowed to such an employee under subsection (2) shall be more than 30 minutes (but not more than 1 hour).

(4) A break allowed to an employee at the end of the working day shall not be regarded as satisfying the requirement contained in subsection (1) or (2).

MagicSean

testicle wrote: »

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0020/sec0012.html#sec12

12.—(1) An employer shall not require an employee to work for a period of more than 4 hours and 30 minutes without allowing him or her a break of at least 15 minutes.

(2) An employer shall not require an employee to work for a period of more than 6 hours without allowing him or her a break of at least 30 minutes; such a break may include the break referred to in subsection (1).

(3) The Minister may by regulations provide, as respects a specified class or classes of employee, that the minimum duration of the break to be allowed to such an employee under subsection (2) shall be more than 30 minutes (but not more than 1 hour).

(4) A break allowed to an employee at the end of the working day shall not be regarded as satisfying the requirement contained in subsection (1) or (2).

In this case the employer isn't requiring it though, the employee is requesting it. I don't think there is any problem with this. Perhaps your brother should concentrate on his own work if he's so worried about how the employer perceives him.

seamus

Yep. That provision basically means that an employer can't require an employee to work a shorter day and give them a "break" at the end of the day.
However, it doesn't prevent the employee choosing to work the shorter day and take their break at this time.