Question: Hourly workers and special lunch

[Robinrs]

One of the managers in our company decided to take her dept out for lunch last week (3 ladies) and she drove them to a Morroccan restaurant. NO ONE wanted to go, they just took it as a nice gesture (manager is the least liked person in the company...

The lunch lasted 2 hours (due to the manager because SHE was driving and in charge)

Today they turned in their timecards and she told them ALL to deduct 2 hours for the lunch. Quote: why should I compensate you for taking lunch?



Now I don't work hourly but if I take my people out and we stay longer I only expect them to treat it as a hour lunch.

Does your company do this? I've been working for 30 years and I've never heard of this happening!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If there was anything about work discussed during that period they were still "on the clock".

 

[chloelovesdisney]

No, I would not do that. I am a supervisor and if I request my team to go to lunch and it goes over (as it always does) they are only deducted for their usual one hour lunch break. Plus I pay for lunch.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I had this (attempted) to happen to me before...

There was always this or that thing to do outside of the office (post office visits, other deliveries, etc.) and we would take turns taking the trips. One day, it was MY turn. It happened to be around lunch time, and so, along with my trips to the printer and the post office, I was asked to stop and pick up lunch for everyone, "if I didn't mind". Of course, I didn't mind.

Everyone placed their orders, and I was to call when I was done at the printers and post office so everyone could wrap up and eat while the food was still warm.

It took me about 20 minutes to hit up 4 fast food places, and Starbucks for my boss.

Later that day, my boss came in and asked me "not to forget" to adjust my time that day, and to subtract those 20 minutes.

OH HECK NO!

I refused. It was a real mess. BUT, I got paid.

 

[lovesmurfs]

No, I would not do that. I am a supervisor and if I request my team to go to lunch and it goes over (as it always does) they are only deducted for their usual one hour lunch break. Plus I pay for lunch.

 

[barkley]

myself and those i supervised were saleried employees, but that did'nt mean we were treated differently than hourly waged staff when it came to this.

if a unit luncheon went over an individual employee's chosen lunch allocation (they could opt for 30 or 60 minutes daily), a timecard had to be submitted for the difference in the time we were gone.

the reasoning for this based in a very expensive lawsuit my employer was subjected to. an employee went off property in their own car and had a horrendous car accident. the injured in the other car's insurance company successfully argued in court that since the employee was still on company time the company had to pay out of their liability insurance, the employee's insurance company sucessfully argued in court that since the employee was still on company time it was a compensable workman's comp. case. after that happened, anytime an employee left the property for any reason they had to submit a timecard-to the extent that those who walked out of the parking lot to do a half mile loop of walking on their paid breaks, even though the breaks were paid for-had to put in a timecard for that 20 minutes which they could retrieve from their supervisor upon returning to destroy (another employee fell while doing her 'exercise walk' during her break and ended up getting workman's comp).

the ONLY time we ever got around this was once a year, during the holidays-we could do a unit luncheon for no more than 2 hours. before we left we had to all do a 2-hour time card (myself as supervisor included) which we could retrieve and destroy once we safely returned.

 

[PatsMom]

When we take the staff out to lunch, it is always work time. We generally only have one wage and hour worker (our administrator) but when we tell her to join us for lunch, it is "on the clock".

But she is also allowed to take a long lunch and "make up her time" on another day (or the same day) if she has errands to run, etc.

 

[dislaney]

Gosh that is really not fair. When my boss used to take us out to lunch for holidays and such it always turned into a really long lunch hour - usually way over an hour. I was salary but the people that weren't always got their full checks. She should have at least told them in advance that way it would have been their choice if they wanted to not get paid for "Lunch".

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I guess I would not be expected to be paid if I was an hourly employee going out to a Morroccan Restaurant for lunch. I would ask if it is on the clock or not first thing.

Now it would be nice to be paid on the clock for lunch however most hourly jobs are not going to be that way, at least the ones I have been in. If you leave the property, you are off the clock.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Not at the request of their supervisor. They would not say no to me, and they would not be going over the hour if they were not going somewhere at my request. I will not dock their hours because of that.

 

[Nancyg56]

Whenever we were taken to lunch we were never docked if we were over our lunch period. It seems strange that a manager would take staff out and then have them docked the time.

 

[ICF]

back when I was hourly, if there was a team lunch with either our mgr or someone above them we were paid for the while we were gone...except for our normal 30 mins lunch.

These lunches, which were usually some sort of work related recognition or team mtg, would typically go 90 mins to 2 hours. We would still leave at our normal time and not be forced to 'make up' the extra time later.

IMO, to take (force) employees to lunch (not at a place of their choosing) and then asking (telling) them to claim that time as their lunch is bad form for the manager.

 

[klacey1]

That's not fair. If I were anyone of those ladies, like PP said, I'd make a fuss and demand I get paid for that extra hour.

 

[Micca]

Clearly, the manager is maintaining her status as the least liked person in the company. I don't know the legalities, but that's a lousy thing to do to the employees.

 

[wvjules]

One of the managers in our company decided to take her dept out for lunch last week (3 ladies) and she drove them to a Morroccan restaurant. NO ONE wanted to go, they just took it as a nice gesture (manager is the least liked person in the company...

The lunch lasted 2 hours (due to the manager because SHE was driving and in charge)

Today they turned in their timecards and she told them ALL to deduct 2 hours for the lunch. Quote: why should I compensate you for taking lunch?



Now I don't work hourly but if I take my people out and we stay longer I only expect them to treat it as a hour lunch.

Does your company do this? I've been working for 30 years and I've never heard of this happening!

I would pitch a fit. I can understand deducting the normal amount of time they deduct for lunch but anything over that, no freakin way! We have lunches here often that frequently go over 1 hour. I, as a contractor even, have never been asked to deduct that extra time.

I see why she is the least liked person in the company. If she forces them to deduct the time then I suggest that they NEVER go above and beyond for her and obviously decline all luncheon invitations. No more extras from me!

 

[ChristaDeVil]

Yeah, I have the same feelings as the pp's in this thread. I work with a very small department and lunch is usually the only time we get to see each other (I work in a different building as the rest of the department). If we go out, my supervisor either pays for it and treats it as a business meeting, or we discuss before-hand if we need to clock out and treat it as a long lunch. When we do that, we just walk to the sushi place across the street, so it's never more than a 45 minute lunch.

 

[bigbabyblues]

When our boss takes us out for lunch, we only get the regular 30 minutes deducted. If we decide to go out on our own and are gone for longer than 30 minutes, then we're docked because we have to clock out and back in.

 

[golfgal]

No, I would not do that. I am a supervisor and if I request my team to go to lunch and it goes over (as it always does) they are only deducted for their usual one hour lunch break. Plus I pay for lunch.

If it was a department function, DH would not dock anyone for lunch hour. They have to clock in and out because the law says the company has to prove they are giving the legal breaks but then he would give them an extra hour of vacation time.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

If it was a department function, DH would not dock anyone for lunch hour. They have to clock in and out because the law says the company has to prove they are giving the legal breaks but then he would give them an extra hour of vacation time.

We wouldn't dock for a department function either. I'm just talking about us all going out to lunch because I want to take them out.

 

[golfgal]

We wouldn't dock for a department function either. I'm just talking about us all going out to lunch because I want to take them out.

He would still consider that a "department" function-even if it is unofficial.