My question is: Are lunch breaks mandatory? I work 3rd shift at Kroger and do not take a lunch break because it puts me behind in my work. (The work load is insane). We are not allowed to leave in the morning until our aisles are done, so taking a lunch would just put me a half hour behind. I have not taken my lunch break in probably 8 months. I am scheduled for 8 hours a night. Now they are saying I have to start taking it, that I don't have a choice. I have been trying to find out if this is true by looking for a copy of the handbook or trying to find some policy on this. I can't find anything. Does anyone know Kroger's policy on lunch breaks?
How would that make me their fool? I don't get paid for it and it makes me work longer. I want to work my 8 hours, get done on time and get the hell out of there.
here is what I will tell you. Lunck breaks are in our contract but they are not paid. If you work an 8 our shift, you are to get 2 15minute breaks and a lunch break. I as a market manager , give my employees this option. They work an 8 our shift and they can take the two 15 minute breaks together and stay in the store to eat, or they take the breaks separatly and a lunch somewhere in their shift before the last two hours of their day. The lunch is to be clocked out and the company does not pay you for the lunch but does the breaks. If they want to take the lunck ( 30 or 60 minutes ) then they just need to stay past the sheduled off time to make the differance up to get their whole scheduled time in for the day
I know of only one person who takes lunch breaks in our store. No one else takes a lunch, just the 2 15 min breaks. I don't feel the need to take a lunch break, and don't have time for it either. I really don't want to stay later either.
As people stated before, you are entitled to two 15 minute breaks for 8 hours of work, Since I work over night as well, I just take two cigarette breaks on the clock, but some of the other people who work night will take there two 15 minutes together, If you are staying on Kroger property you are fine, but if you need to run to a fast food place you are required to clock out for your lunch.
Can you take your lunch during the last half-hour of your shift? That would probably be a good workaround. After all, they didn't tell you when in your shift that you had to take your lunch.
Haha, Well I believe NO manager is going to let that fly, I bet if you tried to do that you would be getting written up, I am sure there is somewhere in the contract it states that.
I was never even told I could take a 30 minute break until about two or three weeks into working at kroger. At which time I was still a bagger and regularly wortked the 9-5 shift
This recently came up at a cultural council meeting, but I am not sure of the details.
At my store, lunches are scheduled and unpaid.
As far as I can tell, if you aren't front end, it doesn't really matter if you work through as long as you get everything done and leave half an hour early so you don't get an extra half punch.
If you are front end, there's papers you need to sign, but I don't know what they say or how it works. It made the manager so upset I didn't even ask. Now that I think about it, that might have been the point.
I think what the original poster meant is that hes working the full 8 hours with no 30 minutes of a paid break and what a waste it is I might say. You're entitled to your break and you're giving them a free 30 minutes of your time. Go eat, regenerate, and let your body relax. Even if my department is low or blown out if i've been there for 4 hours i'm going to take my 30 minute break. It will be waiting for me when I get back.
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
I think what the original poster meant is that hes working the full 8 hours with no 30 minutes of a paid break and what a waste it is I might say. You're entitled to your break and you're giving them a free 30 minutes of your time. Go eat, regenerate, and let your body relax. Even if my department is low or blown out if i've been there for 4 hours i'm going to take my 30 minute break. It will be waiting for me when I get back.
But lunch breaks are not paid, and ours are only 20 minutes. They aren't getting any free time from me, I just don't have to listen to break room drama for 20 unpaid minutes. Lunch breaks are optional at my store, and almost all opt to not take them. I work grocery/dairy/frozen, which means on 2nds I'm the only one there. Meat, deli, bakery, produce all have more people than I have working with me, they can rotate out.
I think what the original poster meant is that hes working the full 8 hours with no 30 minutes of a paid break and what a waste it is I might say. You're entitled to your break and you're giving them a free 30 minutes of your time. Go eat, regenerate, and let your body relax. Even if my department is low or blown out if i've been there for 4 hours i'm going to take my 30 minute break. It will be waiting for me when I get back.
But lunch breaks are not paid, and ours are only 20 minutes. They aren't getting any free time from me, I just don't have to listen to break room drama for 20 unpaid minutes. Lunch breaks are optional at my store, and almost all opt to not take them. I work grocery/dairy/frozen, which means on 2nds I'm the only one there. Meat, deli, bakery, produce all have more people than I have working with me, they can rotate out.
What I mean is that we combine our 2 - 15 minute breaks into 1 - 30 minute break and use it as our lunch break.
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
I think what the original poster meant is that hes working the full 8 hours with no 30 minutes of a paid break and what a waste it is I might say. You're entitled to your break and you're giving them a free 30 minutes of your time. Go eat, regenerate, and let your body relax. Even if my department is low or blown out if i've been there for 4 hours i'm going to take my 30 minute break. It will be waiting for me when I get back.
But lunch breaks are not paid, and ours are only 20 minutes. They aren't getting any free time from me, I just don't have to listen to break room drama for 20 unpaid minutes. Lunch breaks are optional at my store, and almost all opt to not take them. I work grocery/dairy/frozen, which means on 2nds I'm the only one there. Meat, deli, bakery, produce all have more people than I have working with me, they can rotate out.
What I mean is that we combine our 2 - 15 minute breaks into 1 - 30 minute break and use it as our lunch break.
by law (at least in my state) the employer needs to give their employees breaks. and so that is why the employer asks / makes / demands that you punch the clock for breaks. that way if they are audited by some government person, they can easily see that everybody took a break. i know that in the past at other stores i have worked, numerous people would just go sit down for 15 minutes w/o clocking out. so then sooner or later management would bark out orders to make sure all breaks are clocked stating the above reason
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I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
At our store, we get audited every now and again (by who, I don't know). Our grocery manager would have a list of all the nights we skipped lunches and told us that while he understands and missed way more lunches himself, we needed to at least try and clock out for 20 minutes. Apparently the store gets fined if a bunch of people are skipping lunches, since the company is legally obligated to give you breaks, and since there's no way to really prove if you're not taking a lunch by choice or by force, it looks bad to those labor law people.
How would that make me their fool? I don't get paid for it and it makes me work longer. I want to work my 8 hours, get done on time and get the hell out of there.
Sorry, I meant no disrespect.
What I meant was, if you let management think you are willing to skip breaks then they are likely to not only believe you'll do ANY thing for them......but expect it too. Classic program. No gratitude, no rewards. "Hey! Go get Ted------He'll do it!"
Come performance evaluation time: "Well, Ted, we'd like to give you an exceeds on your eval....Trouble is, you're just not quite UP TO SNUFF in your own department. In fact...well, we have to write you up. Sorry, Ted."
But lunch breaks are not paid, and ours are only 20 minutes. They aren't getting any free time from me, I just don't have to listen to break room drama for 20 unpaid minutes. Lunch breaks are optional at my store, and almost all opt to not take them. I work grocery/dairy/frozen, which means on 2nds I'm the only one there. Meat, deli, bakery, produce all have more people than I have working with me, they can rotate out.
20 minutes for lunch? What kind of stupid schedule is that? What do you do, work something like 8:00 to 4:20 or 8:30 to 4:50 or something else equally assinine?
Our shifts are schedule in 8.5 hours increments so the lunches are set in those shifts. We can't leave early if we skip lunch, because everyone is scheduled based on who they will be replacing or what busy time they'll be in for. If you skip lunch one day you're automatically 1/2 hour into OT. And in my store, they're REALLY strict about OT lately. There has to be Store Management approval for any OT in advance. We get two 15min breaks and one 30min lunch for each 8.5 hour shift. I could be wrong, but up to six hours you get one break, six to eight you get a lunch and one break, 8.5 one lunch, two breaks.
How does 8.5 hours work without 1/2 of overtime? that should come out to be 42.5 with 2.5 hours of overtime. Something doesn't smell right. If you're at 40 hours a week and you're getting 2 1/2 of overtime they are not only violating the contract, but federal law as well.
-- Edited by AnonymousCutter on Thursday 1st of November 2012 11:46:25 AM
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
No, if you're working 8 hours you get paid for 7 1/2 hours. The other 1/2 is paid BY the company for your 2 - 15 minute breaks or your 1 - 30 minute break. I'd contact your union representive, because clearly it sounds like they're in violation of the contract.
-- Edited by AnonymousCutter on Thursday 1st of November 2012 12:59:54 PM
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
She's saying that in her store, you get 2 paid 15 minute breaks and 1 non paid 30 minute lunch. That's how a lot of businesses operate isn't it (non Kroger i mean)
It sounds like shes working a full 8 hours and then going to the time clock to lunch in/out. If this is the case theyre cheating every employee out of their paid 30 minute break.
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
I think there's some confusion as to what an 8 1/2 shift means. By 8 1/2 hours she means 8 hours work plus a half hour lunch, 6:00am to 2:30 pm for example.
Exactly. Our store is scheduled exactly the same way for full shifts. An "8 hour" shift is technically scheduled 8.5 hours long because the .5 hour lunch does not count as time worked since it is unpaid. Include the 2 .25 hour breaks and our work days are essentially 8.5 hours long from start to finish. We get paid for 8.00 hours, but only spend 7.5 hours actually on the clock working. Our store is pretty strict lately about overtime, especially unapproved by management. Been like that for a while, but got worse when our old manager moved up in the company and we got a new one who is crazy OCD.
Expanding upon previously stated example shift (idealized): Scheduled 6:00 am - 2:30 pm
Clock in for shift at 6:00 am Clock out for break at 8:00 am Clock in from break at 8:15 am Clock out for lunch at 10:00 am Clock in from lunch at 10:30 am Clock out for break at 12:30 pm Clock in from break at 12:45 pm Clock out for shift at 2:30 pm
I'm sure everyone understands most of how this is scheduled, so I'm intentionally over-explaining it just so everyone is on the same page.
This results in 8 hours of pay while still fulfilling contractual and legal requirements.
And that's exactly why they do it that way and only that way. I was under the general impression that was how it was done across the enterprise, but I guess that was wrong.
so the schedule techelite posted as an example is one you follow?
Example A:
Clock in for shift at 6:00 am Clock out for break at 8:00 am Clock in from break at 8:15 am Clock out for lunch at 10:00 am (Not Paid) Clock in from lunch at 10:30 am (Not Paid) Clock out for break at 12:30 pm (Paid) Clock in from break at 12:45 pm (Paid) Clock out for shift at 2:30 pm
Because if you're replacing "lunch" with "break" you're not being paid for your break. Thats what i'm trying to figure out.
Example B:
Clock in for shift at 6:00 am
Clock out for Lunch at 12 PM
Clock in from Lunch 12:30 PM
Clock out for shift at 2:30 pm
If you were to come in to work at 6 am would you be following "Example A" or "Example B"?
-- Edited by AnonymousCutter on Saturday 3rd of November 2012 01:30:25 AM
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
We do clock our breaks for the sake of keeping track of things, but they are paid breaks. Lunch isn't paid. I get my 8 hours and so does everyone else. As far as I know, the only position that's not clocking (and not a manager) is our Chef, who just goes on breaks whenever he feels like it, but doesn't go crazy with them. Mostly a few cigarette breaks and a lunch.
