Human Resource Blog

Breaks

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In Pennsylvania is it a requirement that our employees take an hour lunch break if they work more than 5 hrs?? What is the requirement if they work 8-5??

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, employers are not required to give rest breaks or meal breaks to workers over the age of 18. OSHA regulations require that employees be permitted to use the bathroom when necessary, and to drink water. The assumption is that on an 8-hour shift, if there is no formal meal break, the employee is permitted to eat while on duty.

Under both federal and state law, if an employer gives rest breaks shorter than 20 minutes, the employee must be paid for that time. If an employer gives a meal break of more than 20 minutes, where the employee is entirely relieved of duties, it can be unpaid. An employer is certainly free to make meal breaks mandatory, but there is no law in Pennsylvania that he or she has to give them.

For more on this topic, go to http://www.dli.state.pa.us/landi/cwp/view.asp?a=142&Q=61106&landiPNavCtr=|&TNID=1024#10

Although a Pennsylvania employer is not required to give breaks, some do. They can even make breaks mandatory and discipline or terminate an employee who doesn’t take them.