Employee Breaks

MEAL TIME

California law requires that all non-exempt employees must take a 30-minute, unpaid meal break each day when working more than five hours in a day. When working less than 5 hours in a day, there is no paid lunch break. The lunch break, if earned, must be taken within the first 6 hours of work performed. Such non-exempt employees may not skip the meal break, and working through your meal break does not entitle you to leave work early or arrive late.  Employees are permitted to leave the premises while on a meal break; however, any additional time spent on break over and above the allowed 30 minutes is not paid time, and any violations of the meal break time limit may subject the employee to attendance incidents and/or disciplinary action. 

Employees are encouraged to take their lunch breaks according to the department schedule created by HR whenever possible. Employees may take a later lunch if necessary but no later than 6 hours after arrival time.

Late Return from Breaks: Employees who are late to return from a lunch break will earn one-half (1/2) incident.

BREAKS

California law requires that all non-exempt employees will receive one, 10-minute uninterrupted paid break for every four hours worked.  LeoFit policy is to allow 15-minute paid breaks instead of 10-minute breaks.  Non-exempt employees on break should not be informed of or requested to answer any work-related information and while on break are not permitted to read or respond to work related emails or calls they may receive on their cell phone, laptop or tablet. Any employee who violates this policy is subject to disciplinary action leading up to and including termination. Generally, breaks should be taken as close to the middle of the work period as is possible.  Employees are permitted to leave the premises while on break; however, any additional time over the 15 minutes that is taken is not paid time, and any violations of the break time limit may subject the employee to disciplinary action.  Employees may not combine their breaks with each other or with the meal break. Additionally, working through your break periods does not entitle you to leave work early or arrive late.

Because breaks should be taken in the middle of the work period rather than at the beginning or end, no breaks are permitted during the first hour of your work schedule or during the last hour of your work schedule.  

Late Return from Breaks: Employees who are late to return from any 15-minute break will earn one-half (1/2) incident.

Employees who are on break are asked to not disturb employees who are not on break so as not to interrupt their workflow, and instead to direct their conversation and comments to those who are also on break at the same time. 

Trainers do not take breaks during any period that they are scheduled with clients.

TIME CARDS

https://docs.leofitlabs.com/wp-admin/post-new.phEach non-exempt employee (on an hourly rate) must to keep an accurate record of the daily lunch and break periods.  Every Tuesday, each employee will print out a time card sheet on which to record exact beginning and ending times of lunch and break periods each day. Breaks should be recorded at the time that lunch or break is taken, not later in the day, to ensure that the time records are accurate.

Time cards will follow the same week as our pay period, which is Sunday to Saturday. The time card is filled in for the week and turned in to the HR Department by close of business on Saturday, or Tuesday morning at the latest. HR records the reported times and then provides official printed time cards for each employee to sign and return, certifying the accuracy of the information provided.

EXEMPT EMPLOYEES

Exempt employees are not subject to the laws regarding either meal breaks or paid breaks.  However, as a company policy, exempt employees should not take more than a 15-minute break in the morning and afternoon, or more than 30 minutes for lunch.

PART TIME EMPLOYEES

Part time employees are only entitled to as many breaks as fit into the hours worked. If the employee works more than 6 hours in a day, that employee is entitled to a 30-minute lunch break. If the employee doesn’t work more than 6 hours in a day, that employee is not entitled to a lunch break. If the employee works less than 8 hours in a day, that employee is entitled to one 15-minute break and not two.