Question: Can you look into how the company I work for is treating employees wrong? We have to punch in and out of work, and they fingerprint us. But then they dock us a half-hour for lunch, when we don’t have time for lunch.
Answer: It may surprise some people that there is no law requiring employers to give meal or other breaks, except in specific cases or because of union contracts.
More on that later.
But if an employer is requiring employees to work through a designated meal break, the employer must pay for the time as hours worked, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Wage Standards Division.
Does it matter if an employee voluntarily works through a lunch period?
“There is no distinction between an employee voluntarily working through a meal break or an employer requiring that the employee continue to work during a meal break,” said William Kunstman, spokesman for the Labor Department. “If an employee does not take a meal break and continues to work, voluntarily or otherwise, he/she must be paid for the time.”
He noted that although an employer may require taking meal breaks, some employees may continue to work because they feel they “have to get the work done.”
But “it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure the employees take the break if the employer does not want to pay for the time worked during a break,” Kunstman said.
You can file a complaint with the Wage Standards Division by downloading a complaint form at hawaii.gov/labor/wsd/wsd/forms.shtml.
For more information, contact the division by emailing DLIR.wages@hawaii.gov; going to its office at 830 Punchbowl St., Room 340; or calling 586-8777.
In Hawaii the only requirement for breaks is found in the Hawaii Child Labor Law, which requires that employers provide minors 14 or 15 years old a 30-minute rest or meal period after five consecutive hours of work, Kunstman said.
There is no law that requires rest or meal breaks for other employees.
However, if an employer does provide a meal break, the period is “not compensable” if the period is 30 minutes or more and the employee is completely relieved of duty.
“Rest breaks” of five to 20 minutes are counted as time worked and are compensable.
Q: When will they have the next free document-shredding event?
A: The Hawaii Better Business Bureau has been sponsoring a free “Secure Your ID Day” annually for the past few years in October.
Its next scheduled shred day is Oct. 20. Details will be released closer to the date of the event.
Auwe
To the driver who almost hit us on the night of April 9. My daughter and I were pedestrians waiting at Waialae and 10th avenues, heading to Palolo Valley. We waited for the cross signal and checked cars in all directions before crossing Waialae. The first driver of the cars coming out of the valley accelerated, heading straight for us! We were just lucky that she stopped five feet away from us. I find this happening more and more, as drivers seem to be more concerned about beating a car, rather than watching out for pedestrians in marked crosswalks. Also, drivers making right turns on a red light need to look right, for pedestrians, as they start to make the turn. I can’t count the number of times I have almost been hit by a car turning right on a red light. It is only because I wait to make eye contact with the driver before crossing that I have not been hit. I fear for my 81-year-old father, whose reactions are not as quick as they used to be. He regularly goes walking in Aiea, and no matter how careful he is, he is still at the mercy of reckless, careless drivers in a hurry. We need a new law: absolutely no right turns on red. — Lucky to Be Alive
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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
