So I was under the impression 4 or 5 hour shifts get one 15 minute paid break that you clock out for while 8 hour shifts get 2 paid 15 minute breaks that may or may not be combined into a 30 minute break that might actually be long enough for you to eat something. When I looked at my eSchedule, it has me down for several 8 hour shifts (2-10) (10-6) but it's saying i'm only working (and therefore only getting paid for) 7.5 hours. Can someone please explain what the **** is going on?
Eight hours is two paid fifteen minute breaks and one 30 minute unpaid lunch where you have to clock out as lunch. We oftentimes didn't take the lunch.
It depends on how anal your management is about clocking out for breaks.
Here at my store, we don't have to clock out for the breaks.
BUT, if we're going to have lunch outside of the store (like make a quick trip to the restaurants in the same lot), we'll have to clock out. It also is considered a 30-min unpaid lunch.
And yes, management is aware that we don't clock out for breaks. Doesn't really matter to them since they're paid breaks anyway.
In most states, four hours or more render you one fifteen minute break. Eight hours or more render you two fifteen minute breaks, and at least a half hour for lunch. How this is broken down by Kroger I don't know.
But: TAKE YOUR BREAKS. DO NOT EVER 'do favors' and work thru them.
You're basically getting screwed because they don't want to give you more than the 7.5 hours. What you have here totals an hour off - 2 fifteen minute breaks (paid) and a 30-minute lunch (unpaid). At my store, we have to clock in/out for breaks but it doesn't affect our hours. So virtually everyone that works hourly works 7.5 hours and gets paid for 8.
When I was at Kroger, we had to clock in and out for our 15 minute breaks. It was annoying as the Krono's clock was at the front of the store. The break room was at the very back, opposite.
By the time you'd clock out and go to the back, after being molested by a couple customers, by the time you sat down, your break would be over and you'd have to walk back to the front and clock in.
it could be an eschedule glitch and depend where you are.
in ATL local 1996 you get 1 'uninterrupted' 15 m break. once you hit 7 hrs you get 2 that we often try to combine into 30. the contract also mentions an hour unpaid lunch you can take but basically only dept heads or AA do that. after 10 hrs a third 15m break comes into play.
if you're front end, please make sure your supervisor knows you haven't had a break because you can be lost in the chaos. don't whine it's "too early" because there's a reason they want to send you when they do ... they are worried about a scheduling problem. some people don't want a break on a four hour shift. too many times i've gone without one on an eight or longer shift and i was #@*$.
didn't used to be true but lately i hit a wall around six hours without a break. it gets hard to concentrate.
i've never seen any repercussions or consequences to the company for bullying hourlies out of breaks. i don't mean someone being overlooked accidentally, i mean a pattern. they'd say it was the floor person's fault even if you're the floor and if a salary manager tells you no don't go or makes threats it's your word vs theirs. they seem to feel those green half hours are more important than your health.
6 hours and 15 minutes or more gets you two 15 minute breaks OR a 30 minute break.
If you work at the front end, you're given two 15 minute breaks. 30 minute breaks are ONLY given out on the front end if they've forgotten to give you your first break and it's at least 2 hours before your shift ends, otherwise they'd end up giving you both breaks within an hour of each other which is pointless.
We also have to clock in and out for every break, including 15 minute breaks.
Federal law says if you work 6 hours and 1 minute or more we are required to give you a 30 min lunch whether you want it or not. If you don't take it we can get fined.
That's a lie. The laws dictating whether you get breaks and lunches are decided at the state level. Some states have no laws regarding breaks and lunches. Get your facts straight, or get the heck out of here.
Although legally (and through "official" company policy) the breaks are supposed to be the way they've been explained here, the actual working policy depends on the store you're at and the department you work in.
The store I used to work at "encouraged" you not to take your breaks by bullying and simply "forgetting" to send you on break. In my department, we had 4 full-time employees who worked open, and department policy was that you couldn't take a break until everyone who came in before you had taken theirs. Seems fair, right? Not exactly. They'd schedule me to work 9 to 4, with at least 4 people who came in before me. Two of them always demanded their breaks, but the other two almost always worked their entire shift without taking one to get that extra half hour of pay. That meant that I wasn't allowed to go on break until after they left at 3 or 3:30, and we were always "too busy" at that time of day for me to get away. If I tried to go earlier, the one with the most seniority would have a fit because she hadn't had HER break yet, even though she never took one, and if I waited until she clocked out, I'd either be taking my break at 3:30, clocking back in at 4, then clocking out to go home; or not getting one at all.
I'm diabetic, which I was careful to make sure they knew up front, but even the time my blood sugar dropped so low that I puked in the department and nearly passed out didn't make any difference. I finally solved the problem by clocking out for break at 4pm (when I was supposed to be going home,) then clocking back in at 4:30, waiting the minute or two until Kronos would let me touch the clock again, clocking out, and leaving. It screwed up their hours, because they had to pay me for the full 8 hours I worked, instead of being able to claim that I took my 30 minutes "on the clock," and it gave me a paper trail at corporate proving that I wasn't being given my breaks when they were supposed to. It pissed them off, but there wasn't anything they could do about it except start letting me take my break at a reasonable time because they knew I'd just take it at the end of shift if they didn't. (By that time, they'd figured out that I was enough of a bitch to cause a big stink if they tried to fire me over it, and that I was keeping a record of every clock touch because they'd "accidentally" shorted my check a few times.) With my known medical issues, they also knew that firing me would give me a great basis for an ADA lawsuit that would cause them all kinds of bad publicity even if they won.
With a union grievance, they may have to reinstate you, but they probably aren't going to have to give you back pay, and there are no fines or attorney fees involved. Lawsuits are very different. Not only does a win give you back pay and attorney fees, you might get additional money to "punish" them for breaking the rules, plus they might have to pay a fine to the government for violating the ADA.
Warning: Don't assume that you can sue and win a bunch of money because they broke a few rules. Unless they've actually fired you unfairly, and you have a good legal basis for a discrimination lawsuit or excellent supporting documentation PROVING they've broken the law deliberately, you're pretty much out of luck. They have enough money to pay someone to sit and watch every second of surveillance video during the times you worked, and if they can find you slacking off or breaking any rules on the video they can claim THAT's why they fired you, and not whatever you're claiming. Any corporation is really good at playing CYA (cover your a$$,) and they have a lot more resources than you do. My situation is unique because I'm covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and I made sure that my medical issues were disclosed when they hired me. That doesn't mean they can't fire me if they can catch me doing something wrong, it just means that it's harder for them to get away with firing me for insisting they follow their own official policy.
