10+ hours on preload, 10 min break?

This last thursday we clocked over 10 hours working preload and only got one 10 min break. In my state (Colorado), the US Dep of Labor website states that we should be getting 1/2 hour after 5 hours worked.

Last year I can remember them giving us a 20 min break once or twice during peak but even that seems to fall criminally short of the law.
How much break time are the other hubs out there getting during peak season and how is UPS able to get away with this?
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
States regulate mandatory lunch & break periods. While Colorado does indeed mandate a half-hour lunch after 5-hours for shifts exceeding 6-hours, there's oodles of exceptions. To determine whether UPS does or does not qualify for an exception, you'd need to contract an attorney or your state regulators. My best "guess" is that UPS could successfully argue that a meal break would interrupt its business, and that starting 30-minutes earlier would be impractical given the (sometimes unpredictable) flow of inbound trailers; thus it allows employees to consume food on the job -- which also satisfies Colorado law.

Relax, most of us live in the 40-something states that do not regulate rest periods and are also working the same grueling shifts as you. It's literally a handful of days per year, and within a few weeks you'll go back to 3.5-hour days.
 

PiedmontSteward

RTW-4-Less
No state-mandated breaks at all here in the South for PT'ers. I worked 11 hours straight with less than 10 minutes between sorts one day this week, which was enough time for a cup of coffee. It's atrocious, but it is what it is.
 

BigUnionGuy

Got the T-Shirt
This last thursday we clocked over 10 hours working preload and only got one 10 min break. In my state (Colorado), the US Dep of Labor website states that we should be getting 1/2 hour after 5 hours worked.

Last year I can remember them giving us a 20 min break once or twice during peak but even that seems to fall criminally short of the law.
How much break time are the other hubs out there getting during peak season and how is UPS able to get away with this?

In the time it took you.... to login and post....

http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/CDLE-LaborLaws/CDLE/1248095305420



-Bug-
 

konsole

Well-Known Member
Whether there is a state or company mandate is irrelevant to the fact that working that many hours with only a 10 minute break isnt right. UPS has already agreed that a 10 minute break would be given between the 2nd and 3rd hour, yet they think that working 7 hours beyond that doesnt necessitate another, or longer break. I also remember in years past that when the shift was running 5+ hours we would get two 10 minute breaks or one twenty minute break. Last year the shift was cutoff so many times right at the 6 hour mark so that people couldnt take a 30 minute break. Starting last week we have been going 7+ hours and some on the shift have been going over 8 and with the company still only giving one 10 minute break I had enough and spoke to my steward along with the sort manager and I ended up getting my 30 minute unpaid break. The few people I talked to about it said that they wouldnt take their 30 minutes because they needed the money or they thought that they wouldnt want to come back after the break. I would be willing to accept 20 minutes of paid break when the shift runs 6+ hours but when they still keep it at 10 minutes and call you back after 8 minutes then sorry but thats not enough rest period. 30 minutes of rest is alot more important to me then $5, and if they want to play the greed game and have no sympathy for their tired workers then I have no problem taking my 30 minutes.
 

konsole

Well-Known Member
..... Its just too bad that more people arent willing to take their 30 minutes because if they where then the company would be forced to provide a longer break due to so many work areas being vacant.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
I bet those poor over-worked souls up in the Ivory Tower are only given a 10 minute break during a 10 hour shift also. Wait-what do you mean?- they get a lunch break and everything? How about it Hoax---tell the truth now.
 

konsole

Well-Known Member
Would just substitute PT sups to keep the belts on.

Lets see theres about 75 union workers on our shift and probably about 12 supervisors, many of which are already too busy doing other union work. maybe they could find a way to get through a 30 minute break for 10 union workers, but 20 or 30 workers no way, the sort would have to stop. It would be too much chaos to deal with. Lets not forget that the state mandate doesnt just apply to union workers.
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
Where I'm at, the legally mandated break is unpaid.
The reason no one complains about not getting it is that it would just mean being stuck there longer making the same amount of money.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
I bet those poor over-worked souls up in the Ivory Tower are only given a 10 minute break during a 10 hour shift also. Wait-what do you mean?- they get a lunch break and everything? How about it Hoax---tell the truth now.

When things are hopping or messed up, we have worked 36 hours (or more) straight with no real break. I remember not going home for 3 days once.
Someone orders pizza and you keep working while you eat.

I remember a few instances of a week of 16 hour days for 10 days straight.
UPS expects and gets the same from management as they do from Teamsters ... or at least they use to.

Don't miss those days at all.
 

phox1515

Well-Known Member
must be nice to have state work laws to mandate breaks... Texas is a right to work state... no mandated breaks or lunch, employers can fire you for almost anything, they don't even have to give you 8 hours rest time between shifts... you can work a 10 hour shift , go home for 3 hours and then be asked to come back in for another 10 hours... no breaks... and worst of all if you refuse they can fire you for it and you won't qualify for unemployment.
 

upschuck

Well-Known Member
When things are hopping or messed up, we have worked 36 hours (or more) straight with no real break. I remember not going home for 3 days once.
Someone orders pizza and you keep working while you eat.

I remember a few instances of a week of 16 hour days for 10 days straight.
UPS expects and gets the same from management as they do from Teamsters ... or at least they use to.

Don't miss those days at all.

So that's why all those packages have grease marks on them.
 
This last thursday we clocked over 10 hours working preload and only got one 10 min break. In my state (Colorado), the US Dep of Labor website states that we should be getting 1/2 hour after 5 hours worked.

Last year I can remember them giving us a 20 min break once or twice during peak but even that seems to fall criminally short of the law.
How much break time are the other hubs out there getting during peak season and how is UPS able to get away with this?
There should be language in your contract. In South Cal. you get a 10 min. break between the 2nd and 3rd hour and an additional 5 minutes for every hour you work after that. The break time will not exceed a half hour because that's what a full timer would receive for a full time shift. There is also a state law that there be a mandatory half hour meal time if you work 6 hours or more. That's why in my building they try to limit the part timers to 5.99 or under. Hope this helps.
 

konsole

Well-Known Member
Not sure what happened in our building but these last 2 days we have been getting two 10 minute breaks. Rumor has it that it was something along the lines of management realizing that they werent giving long enough break time. Another part of that rumor was that people are going to get paid for the break for each day that they were suppose to get a longer break. So yesterday and today we got a break around 3:00, and then the second break around 5:30 or so.

How chaotic has it been in other people's buildings? This morning we started at 12:15 and they didnt get me one of my trucks until 1.5 hours into the shift, the belt next to mine was missing half its trucks and didnt get all its trucks until 1 hour into the shift. I counted 6 or so trucks missing on another belt and again it took probably around an hour into the shift for them to get all their trucks. Monday of last week wasnt quite as bad but similar and they forgot to give me one of my trucks until 2 hours into the shift, and I had to bring it up to the movers at which point they had to move other trucks around to fit my third truck in. So 30 minutes into the shift this morning there was probably 1/3 of the trucks still not setup and it took another 30 minutes to get most of them finally setup. Why they insisted to keep the primary moving when so many trucks where missing who knows. Start times being changed on a daily basis and about 5 times in the last few weeks the supervisors have had to call people in the afternoon about the change in start time for the next morning. Never remember that happening more then once or twice since I started at UPS. In years past if we started at 12:?? we were usually done by 7:00-7:30, but now we go straight to the drivers start of around 8:45. We can't start any sooner because we bump into the local sort, and we can't go any later because we bump into the drivers start, and I've heard that it will get a little bit heavier.
 
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