No breaks during an 8-10 hour shift: Advice?

[Armakus]

Hey all!

I recently started a new job tutoring young children at a nationwide tutoring franchise in Arizona. I love the job (as in, I love the kids that I work with and the environment) but am not so pleased with management. In particular, during an 8-10 hour workday I do not get a single break or lunch period, which I know is against Arizona law. Is there a government department I can contact to anonymously report this to? Or what other types of steps could I take?

I probably wouldn't put up much of a fuss, as the pay is good, but I have epilepsy and not being able to eat for 8-10 hours has been giving me auras and small seizures. Please help :3

[Zelk]

Speak to your union

[Armakus]

Speak to your union

Yeah... there isn't one, as far as I'm aware :3

[wowaccounttom]

advice...

take small snacks and eat while you teach -- give the kids something to do for 5 minutes...

[Deleted]

Speak to your union

This.

What does your contract say and what is the law where you are?

[Video Games]

Suck it up butter cup. I've had to work 13 hour shifts with no break.

[Blueobelisk]

Speak to your manager or boss?

[Vankrys]

you must have a manager, or a supervisor, i would talk to him.

I cannot fathom manager to be so unreasonable to not offer a break, like 30 minutes, in a 8 to 10 hours shift.

be polite and non threatening, try to come to a friendly agreement, you do not want to antagonize your manager, but you also know what you want, so don't be passive.

If they hired you and you are doing the job, they need you, you have some leverage. And if they won't budge, i'd start looking at my option.

[Belloc]

Arizona State Labor Department

[TripleZero]

Well, citing medical reasons seems like a good strategy to get those breaks? Approach your direct superior and talk about it carefully.

Might be a very naive way of trying to handle this but it's how i'd do it. Legal measures should be a last resort.

[Captain N]

Speak to your union

Arizona is a Right-To-Work state. There's a strong possibility that his tutoring center is non-union.

They also don't have State Laws about meal and break periods:

Arizona does not have any labor laws requiring an employer to provide a meal period or breaks to employees, thus the federal rule applies. The federal rule does not require an employer to provide either a meal (lunch) period or breaks. However, if an employer chooses to do so, breaks, usually of the type lasting less than 20 minutes, must be paid. Meal or lunch periods (usually 30 minutes or more) do not need to be paid, so long as the employee is free to do as they wish during the meal or lunch period

And unfortunately Federal Law doesn't include them either:

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the work week and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Bona fide meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

[Armakus]

Arizona State Labor Department

You, sir, are awesome. Thanks. I tried googling for this and couldn't find it.

- - - Updated - - -

No. His employer is legally required to provide him a lunch break. You may be too much of a pussy to do something about this, but he's clearly not.

Thank you <3

[Belloc]

You, sir, are awesome. Thanks. I tried googling for this and couldn't find it.

I hope that link is able to help you, but the post immediately before yours makes me question whether or not your state requires employers to provide a break =/ best of luck, either way!

[belfpala]

Hey all!

I recently started a new job tutoring young children at a nationwide tutoring franchise in Arizona. I love the job (as in, I love the kids that I work with and the environment) but am not so pleased with management. In particular, during an 8-10 hour workday I do not get a single break or lunch period, which I know is against Arizona law. Is there a government department I can contact to anonymously report this to? Or what other types of steps could I take?

Should be an Emplolyee's Rights poster up somewhere with the number.

Bring it up with your employer first. Here, an hourly employee has a right to a 15 minute paid break for every 4 hours worked, plus a 30 minute (unpaid) meal break for 8 or more hours, plus reasonable bathroom breaks.

[Milchshake]

Kumon, Kaplan and those other tutoring services are just grinders that burn through their staff. Congrats, Arizona is a "right to work" state. So really you have no labor protections. Arizona also has no laws that force employers to provide breaks or meal times. They only have to pay you for breaks, should they decide to provide them.

So you're screwed for now Just try to use your experience and find a similar job on the side.

[medievalman1]

Snip

You're clearly quoting, may we have a link to it?

[Brubear]

Unfortunately, it looks like Arizona is a state with no legal requirement for lunch or other breaks at work (yay conservative, right to work laws!) so you're pretty much SoL unless there's there's A) something in your employment contract that stipulates medical exemptions to the no breaks policy or B) you can find some major backs to kick off a lawsuit of some sort to see if you can get the law changed. But that's about it.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/money...-ariz/9258251/

http://www.azleg.gov/Briefs/Senate/L...ENT%20LAWS.pdf

http://www.employmentlawhandbook.com...-laws/arizona/

[Xenryusho]

Contact your VPP representative and use form 457 to file a hazard report.

[Blueobelisk]

No. His employer is legally required to provide him a lunch break. You may be too much of a pussy to do something about this, but he's clearly not.

Thank you <3

I can't find where Belloc made that post. How did you quote that?

[Zelk]

Arizona is a Right-To-Work state. There's a strong possibility that his tutoring center is non-union.

They also don't have State Laws about meal and break periods:

Arizona does not have any labor laws requiring an employer to provide a meal period or breaks to employees, thus the federal rule applies. The federal rule does not require an employer to provide either a meal (lunch) period or breaks. However, if an employer chooses to do so, breaks, usually of the type lasting less than 20 minutes, must be paid. Meal or lunch periods (usually 30 minutes or more) do not need to be paid, so long as the employee is free to do as they wish during the meal or lunch period

And unfortunately Federal Law doesn't include them either:

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the work week and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Bona fide meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

That's absolutely criminal. Never seen a better use of America's many guns than to wipe the smirk off the people in charge of this state.