Human Resource Blog

Meal Break Requirements

I am an office manager for exempt and non-exempt employees for a local governement in Virginia. Many of my department employees are on alternative work schedules and choose to work through a traditional 30-60 minute meal break in order to complete their required 40 hour work week. Recently, our HR Director stated in a meeting that all employees are required to take a minimum 30 minute lunch break between the hours of 10 AM and 3 PM “based on the law.” I cannot find any federal or state law that supports this statement. Can Virginia employers mandate employees to take unpaid meal breaks? Can Virginia employees choose to work through meal breaks?
Thanks

Both you and the HR person are right. There is no Virginia or federal law that requires employers to give meal breaks to workers. Nineteen U.S. states have such a law, but Virginia does not. In some cases, a union contract or other agreement might require a meal break.

An employer can and should require that workers take a meal break, as a matter of company policy. A number of studies show that employees who take a regular, unpaid meal break during the day are more productive. They simply get more done during the day. As the office manager, you should be interested in making your employees as productive as possible.

It is completely legal for an employer to require workers to take a meal break, and to discipline or terminate any employee who does not. In fact, it is a best practice in the HR field. Your employees should be required to take the break and work fewer hours, or work a half hour longer.

No employee has the right to work through breaks. By allowing your employees to rearrange their schedules in this way, you are doing a disservice both to your employer and to the taxpayers.