Paid Lunches

[emthesse]

I work for a full time, hospital based ambulance service. They have always been paid a 1/2 hr. for their lunch. So for example, I work 7-3. I get paid for 8 hrs. I get no lunch deduction. Recently they revoked our paid lunches. Is this legal since we are never technically off of duty? Everything I have found so far says you have to be fully off duty in order for them NOT to pay you for lunch. But in my mind, since I wear a pager, I'm never totally off of duty. (I already tried to say I would just turn off the pager during lunch) ;) Didn't work so well. They didn't go for it. Anyway, any references for me? Can anyone tell me where to start looking? I feel this is wrong of them, however, if they can legally do this I will drop it. I just need some ammo, before I go in there guns blazin'.

[50FFEMT]

The people I know who work in an environment where it is not feasible for them to have proper breaks are paid extra for that time. In Alberta, you are entitled by law in each 8 hour shift to a meal break and two other 15 minute breaks. If your position makes it impossible for the employer to guarantee that break, they are required to compensate you for that.

[lutan1]

Can you put you and the rig out of service (unavailable) whilst you eat and not take a call?

[parafire81]

I too work for a full-time hospital-based ambulance service. Several years ago we lost our paid lunches as well. Like you, we were subject to have our lunch hour interrupted and routinely was...not only for ambulance calls, but we also staff the ER, establish saline locks in X-ray, Assist the med-surg floor etc.

We found much of the same information you did, and as best as we can tell...no this is absolutely NOT legal. We kinda let it die for a while so that we could come back and get several thousand dollars worth of back pay from them, but unfortunately, there is no retalliation protection for turning them in to the wage and labor board. So they can (an in our case they will) fire us if we were to report them.

If you find a way around this...let me know!!!

[LouisianaMedic]

by law you are suppose to have 30 minute lunch and 2 - 15 minute breaks in 8 to 12 shift.. If they want to cut paying you lunch.. start hitting them for overtime for each day you dont get your 1 hr break... by law they must pay you overtime or they are in federal violation.. Once the OT starts adding up - i am sure they will bring back the paid meal time.. but that is just my opinion..

[Adam07003]

Or you could decline to take any calls during that "lunch" although you may find it hard to as a human being when someone needs your help, if they see that their EMS is NOT responding because of that "non-paid" half hour, they will probably pay oit.

Also, since you are only really being paid for 7 1/2 hours of work, your not doing a fulltime work week or are you? Check your local laws regarding FULLTIME work and all that stuff, not sure how you guys do it. I don't ride paid

[BD6413]

If you're not being paid than how can you be expected to work ? -- I agree if you're not being paid for the lunch break than shut the radios / pagers off. We're entitled to breaks.

I work in Fire Based EMS System. -- We're Firefighters as well as Ambulance Personnel A few years back before I came to this job they tried introducing the no pay for lunch theory {We work for a combination department so the six of us are governed by the Volunteer Heads} Our response was simple if we're not being paid for our meal times, which in this business will be interupted, than we're not handling responses.

Needlees to say it happened once {again before I came to work here} There was a call to assist a neighboring district with a house fire and the engine from here made the response 22 minutes later after the staff was off of thier un-paid lunch.......That night a special meeting was called by the volunteer board and the meal breaks have been paid ever since. -- They had to follow state employee laws and were not happy about it but after that crew made an example of the stupid rule it was abloished.

In the emergency services we never know what the day / night will bring. You can't schedule a meal or a poop for that matter -- This isn't a 9-5 job with 12 noon lunches and 2:30 breaks. Some Nights I'm lucky if I get dinner before 11:00

[CH47Doc]

i work 24 on and 48 off for a paid hospital ALS service. if no calls i sleep, watch TV or study. maybe wash/wax the truck if bored. i eat when i want to, where i want to (within reason, no HOOTERS in uniform) we go shopping at wal-mart, play x-box or watch movies whilst in our Lazy boys. If the weathers good we BBQ out back. I get paid for 24 hrs. Overtime after 40 hrs a week. I work between 48 and 72 hrs a week. if off for a holiday i get paid time and a half for 8hrs that day. i get paid lunches since we never go out of service. life is good!! :) its almost like being a fireman but we work harder..:P

[CH47Doc]

scratch the part about 24hrs OT, (typo)

[jmoulton]

I do not see where they can decide not to pay you for that half hour and keep the 7-3 schedule as was stated earlier that is only 7 1/2 hours. If I were you I would check with the Department of Labor to see what you can dig up on it.

[preston124]

When I worked the hospital we had to fill out a form if our lunch was interrupted. If that happened, were paid for that period. I would have to guess the hospital knows the rules, they are just getting what they can while they can. I've seen that happen before.

[djgilbert32]

by law you are suppose to have 30 minute lunch and 2 - 15 minute breaks in 8 to 12 shift.. If they want to cut paying you lunch.. start hitting them for overtime for each day you dont get your 1 hr break... by law they must pay you overtime or they are in federal violation.. Once the OT starts adding up - i am sure they will bring back the paid meal time.. but that is just my opinion..
Federal law does not require your employer to give you a lunch break nor does it require breaks,unless this is something in a unoin contract or something of the sort, you are required to be paid for any time worked, if you cant't put your unit out of service then, eat your lunch and if it gets interrupted by a call, then you start getting payed at that moment you start your response.

[firespec35]

Federal law does not require your employer to give you a lunch break nor does it require breaks,unless this is something in a unoin contract or something of the sort, you are required to be paid for any time worked, if you cant't put your unit out of service then, eat your lunch and if it gets interrupted by a call, then you start getting payed at that moment you start your response.

I was gonna ask about the statute number on that one :) I know that due to us being emergency services we are exempt from certian parts of law.

[mikeyboy]

This is a true story.....
I used to work at a Station were we didn't get paid for lunch..... Well one day (I was off duty), the other FFs were dispatched to a call a few streets down from the Fire House and they didn't respond. When Dispatch called them on the Land line to ask if they copied the call, they said "Yes, but we don't get paid to run calls during lunch."
Of course, Dispatch paged the Duty Chief and told them what was happening. When he called the Station he talked to the individual that made the comment and then told them to respond and he would handle the rest. Come to find out, it wasn't set up that way and Payroll just decided to start docking our guys for this. Needless to say that Payroll Clerk is no longer with the Department.
I realize this is a far extreme, but bring this up to your Supervisor and maybe you will get the extra time.

[yowzer]

Are you union? Is anything about lunch breaks in the contract?

[EMTVOLFF]

Ouch.

Sounds like you're getting screwed.

I just don't see how they can justify not paying you, when in point of fact you are not going "off duty" to eat.

I work 24 on, 48 off. We get paid for 24 hours, no ifs, ands, or buts.

Good luck to ya!

[HuskerMedic]

I guess I'm not quite following you-you're working 8 hours and still getting paid for your full 8 hours, correct? Are they saying you can't take any time during this shift to eat/have a rest break, even if you're not busy? If so, I sure hope you've got a 5 gallon bladder!

At a former job, my employer wanted to implement a "roll call" type situation, where people would have to show up 30 minutes prior to their shift start for breifings, inspection, etc. As attendance at this "roll call" would be mandatory, it was, of course, compensable time. Then, the employer said the employee would be given the 30 minutes back when they took their lunch break (our breaks, one 30 minute and two 15 minutes, were paid but were subject to call volume, etc.). Our employer quickly backed off of this idea when we pointed out that any employee that had to be called back off of lunch break (not uncommon) under their scenario would be incurring overtime.

I've worked public safety in several different roles all of my adult life, and I accept interrupted meals as part of the job...however, if your employer is saying you can't take a minute just to eat when activity is light, all they're doing is setting themselves up for people to abuse the system (i.e. not calling back in service right away after a call to grab a bite, etc.).

[buckeyedoc]

Like others here, I work 24/72's for private EMS and get paid for 24 hours. We take our meal breaks whenever we can. There have been many times that our meals are cut short. That is part of the job. However, it is not fair that you are not being paid for lunches. I would approach management and force them to establish you a meal time. Then if you are on lunch from 11:30-12:00, then don't take any runs during that time. The responsibility lies squarely on their shoulders. Either that or do what we do in the ER. We are scheduled 12 hour shifts, but only get paid for 11 1/2 because of a 30 min meal break. I am scheduled 1900-0700. I don't clock out until 0730 and that way I know that I get my 30 minutes back. Good luck.