Unpaid breaks

LegacyUser

Having previously been basically self employed for the past decade up until roughly a year back i'm not too sure on the in's and outs of workplace law and my rights now i'm working for someone as part of a team.
Hopefully someone can help me out, basically i'm working in a retail environment and our breaks are unpaid, that's fair enough to me but the issue is we're that busy and understaffed that if one of us leaves it's too busy for the others to deal with and generally causes mayhem in store therefore our break consists of grabbing some fruit or a sandwich and eating it in 2 minutes yet we're missing an hours pay? People that have been there for a number of years say this is how it's always been.
I've raised it with our area manager who notified me it's been raised with the company but no plans are in place to make breaks paid.
I've felt like taking my hour break but feel too guilty leaving my colleagues(who are great to work with) as i know they'll be the ones suffering and not the big cheese higher up in the company.
Anybody know what (if any) rights i have? Or is it just a case of take the break?

Nervous Wreck

Take the break.

Thoie

You like your colleagues - arrange between the lot of you that everyone gets to take their hour, but swap around who goes when. E.g. person 1 goes at 12-1, person 2 at 1-2 and person 3 from 2-3. That way everyone gets "hit" with the additional workload while someone's out (not just them always covering for you), and everyone gets a turn at the good/bad lunch times (maybe 1-2 is the busiest time in the shop, so it wouldn't be fair for one person to always take their lunch at that time). Map it out between yourselves on a weekly basis so everyone knows what time their break will be each day that week, and can plan accordingly.

idnkph

As already said. Arrange between your colleagues what time your going on break and just go.
Don't feel guilty about it. I bet your employer doesn't feel guilty about get the best part of an hours labor out of each of you every day.
If ye keep doing that then there is no need for them to employ another.
If bedlam arises and customers complain it could be in all your best interests.
Be kind and courteous to all customers but take your time.
Always leave the premises for your break and never ever feel guilty. You all need to be on the one page.

KeithTS

I ran a store for a number of years where this was the score.
Mid week we had 3 staff on and 2 struggled if someone needed to run out back for stock or anything.
Couldn't justify having an extra member of staff hired just to cover lunches to HQ and it was crazy busy most days so I arranged a couple of things to appease the staff (who do all the hard work in retail).

1 - Mornings were quiet so I arranged that 2 members of staff start at 9am and another at 10am so that they could get their hour back (this rotated).
2 - Another member of staff left an hour early as evenings were quieter than lunch time (also rotated).
3 - If anybody was still due an hour here or there, I bumped it up on the rota so they got what was due to them.
4 - To make their life easier and because they were understanding to our business needs I did my best to facilitate any appointments etc. without docking their pay an hour here or there for doctors/dentists and so on providing they did their best to get their appointment at off peak times.


It's not an ideal situation and this routine is very much dependent on the business needs but there are things the manager can arrange to help you guys somehow under the table so they hit their targets and you guys are happy.

tedpan

Retail can be tough. Weekends, very few breaks, 15 minute lunches if you're lucky.

I'm Monday to Friday now, hopefully never have to go back..