After a little searching on mass.gov by searching for breaks on that site:
Q: Are employees entitled to breaks?
A: Yes, employees may not be required to work more than six hours in any given day without having been provided at least one half hour meal period. If an employer restricts the employee's movement during the break, the employee must be paid for that period. The break period may be unpaid. Certain exemptions from this requirement can be found in [General Laws c. 149, s. 100].
As I understood it when working for Sears, if you're scheduled for eight clock-hours (8-4), then you're only REALLY scheduled for seven and one-half hours of working time, because you have to be given at least 30 minutes unpaid break for lunch, which comes out of the eight hour clock time. This throws off the calculations for break times somewhat and is how Sears used to get (ostensibly) a full day's work out of an employee without giving them two breaks during the day; because we only worked 7.5 hours, we weren't eligible for the second paid 15 min break (or benefits, or guaranteed hours, or any of those nifty full-time perks).
A lot of places will schedule you for 8.5 hours, so they can give you the half hour unpaid break and still get the full 8 hours that they pay you for.
One place I worked did that, but gave 2 10 minute breaks (which i was told was the requirement) 1 whenever the catering truck came by in the morning, and 1 around 3 in the afternoon.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-03 04:56 am (UTC)I'm not sure. I thought it was a 10 or 15 minutes per 4 hours of work.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-03 05:36 am (UTC)Q: Are employees entitled to breaks?
A: Yes, employees may not be required to work more than six hours in any given day without having been provided at least one half hour meal period. If an employer restricts the employee's movement during the break, the employee must be paid for that period. The break period may be unpaid. Certain exemptions from this requirement can be found in [General Laws c. 149, s. 100].
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-03 07:07 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-03 07:39 am (UTC)One place I worked did that, but gave 2 10 minute breaks (which i was told was the requirement) 1 whenever the catering truck came by in the morning, and 1 around 3 in the afternoon.
as far as i remember, having recently looked it up
Date: 2004-02-03 11:07 am (UTC)6 hours: 1 30-minute break
8 hours: 1 of each
and the 15s are part of paid-time, but the half needn't be.
Re: as far as i remember, having recently looked it up
Date: 2004-02-04 06:02 pm (UTC)