We’ve all seen groups of employees gathered around the entrances to buildings smoking cigarettes. And there’s always the afternoon run to the local Starbucks. Is an employer required to count the time spent on these personal activities as time worked when calculating an employee’s weekly hours of work? And how much break time is an employer required to give an employee each day?
Unless the break is a bona fide meal period it must be counted as working time. The question of what constitutes a bona fide meal break begins with 29 C.F.R. §785.11(a):
Bona fide meal periods are not work-time. Bona fide meal periods do not include coffee breaks or time for snacks. These are rest periods. The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals. Ordinarily 30 minutes or more is long enough for a bona fide meal period. A shorter period may be long enough under special conditions. The employee is not relieved if he is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating.
How Is the Break Time Spent?
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