Forced Unpaid Break

[bigbrownhen]

Yep, 30 min unpaid lunch here, and 10 min paid break. They haven't been too pushy one taking full lunch, until this last week. Everyone had to put in full 30 min, not 15 or 20 min.

To the OP, just work as directed. As the other posters have stated, if this causes service failures, so be it. Not your problem(annoys me as well). Communicate to the center what you can't get done, ask for assistance, then the ball is in their court. If you take lunch and it means you can't have all residentials off and have enough room for your pick up pcs, they will have to lower your stop count(eventually). You will be working later until they get it all balanced out. I am just as guilty as some others on not taking a full lunch, busting it to get home to my family earlier from time to time. Sounds like this is no longer the way things can be done, so be it..

 

[dannyboy]

My district is forcing all drivers to take a full break- 20 minutes paid and 40 minutes unpaid- every day. Is this legal? In the past they have been fairly relaxed about this but now are threatening "disciplinary action" (Warning letters) to any drivers who don't comply. Many drivers are taking thier hour break after a 10 hour day. I ask again, is this legal?

first, if you are mis posting about breaks and lunch, there might be some of your confusion.

as has been posted, they can force you to take your lunch. in some areas, they can no longer input your lunch and break if you dont take it.

i look for this to really be a sticking point over the next year or so. any way you want to look at it, its time card fraud, and is at best dishonest.

if you dont take it, dont put down you did. and if the driver does not want to take it, then pay him/her for the time worked. that simple.

but to take an hour out of your time card each day for lunch, knowing you didnt (via diad) is dishonesty. and those that participate should be fired.

period.

but they do legally have that right to MAKE you take your lunch and breaks that are in the contract. after all, if you dont, that makes you in violation of the contract, and we sure dont want that now do we?

d

 

[UPSGUY72]

We get 1 hour unpaid lunch and 2 10 min paid breaks. We have to put the 1 hour break in the DIAD.

 

[browniehound]

In the local I work, we are given 2 10 minute breaks, both paid. One is to be taken in the AM (I'm not sure between which hours but it is specified) and one in the PM. They also want us to take an hour lunch.

Until the lawsuit, this time was automatically deducted from our days pay. I'm sure UPS made out like bandits with many lunch-runners. The problem of the driver being an hour-over disappears if he runs his lunch.

Now, if we can't get the full hour in between deliveries and pick-ups we must get authorization from the center to not take the full hour.

Why is this the case? The only logical explination is UPS wants to take advantage of the lunch-runners. If this is not the reason, please explain to me the logic behind a forced hour lunch. In our center we have telematics. UPS know where we are and what we are doing at every second. There is no cheating them today.


In my center we send out many routes that are strictly house calls with a business here and there. No pick-ups.

Why force that driver to take an hour lunch and 2 10 minute breaks. I look at these routes and ask why?

Let me use the 2 10's to eat and get home an hour earlier. Why make us sit for an hour for no reason? If we need to take more to grab something, we just code it off, no? UPS know where we are at ALL TIMES!

I understand the forced hour for industrial routes that need to make late pick-ups, but why house-call routes?

I'm just looking for a straight answer as to why a house call route must take his/her 1.3333 hours of time. My logical explination is UPS hoping for free labor. Anyone? Bueler?

 

[Tired Driver]

In my area we get 1o minutes paid break & 1 hour that is taken out of our day whether we take a lunch or not. We are allow to punch in early and take our lunch or a part of it then.

 

[PHILA LOCAL]

my district is forcing all drivers to take a full break- 20 minutes paid and 40 minutes unpaid- every day. Is this legal? In the past they have been fairly relaxed about this but now are threatening "disciplinary action" (warning letters) to any drivers who don't comply. Many drivers are taking thier hour break after a 10 hour day. I ask again, is this legal?

read your unions local contract.. Mine states that my lunch should be taken between my 3-5 th hr. 60min lunch and a 10min paid brake

 

[katana]

A huge thanks to all. This is very helpful. Until about 5 years ago, we had 20 minutes paid break and 40 minutes automatically deducted from our pay weather we took it or not. Then an event occurred- we were told a lawsuit in California- and the taking of the unpaid 40 minutes ceased. We could work 10 hours, and be paid for ten hours. Now management is insisting everyone will take an hour break or be disciplined. Some members of our local are considering a lawsuit against UPS as most members are taking thier breaks in the building after a ten hour day. That is why I asked, "Is this legal?"

 

[iruhnman630]

Currently our center requires a 20 min unpaid lunch to be shown in the board, with up to 50 minutes available, along with a paid 10 min break available to us. I have yet to see where the contractual basis is for this 20/10 policy. It is not automatically taken out, but have fun in the office the next day if you don't take...err, show that 20 minutes.

I used to be a break skipper, mainly because I really don't like stopping midday and wasting daylight unless I feel the break is needed. I have worked at getting away from that habit, and the idea of sitting in the office for 20 minutes in the evening now seems silly to me.

On some of the routes I cover the break times work out well, usually between finishing buisiness deliveries and starting pickups. But I ran a rural route the last few weeks where there was just no good break time, unless I wanted to park and stare at a snow-covered field for 20 minutes, with no bathroom in sight. And by the time I did get back to town and the one or two bathrooms around, it was time to break off and make the +-15 minute commit window on a pickup 18 minutes away.

 

[satellitedriver]

My bad,
We get no paid breaks here and a 1hr unpaid lunch.
I thought it was a universal rule and I was wrong.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

In my area we get 1o minutes paid break & 1 hour that is taken out of our day whether we take a lunch or not. We are allow to punch in early and take our lunch or a part of it then.

Punching in early to take part of your lunch totally defeats the purpose of a meal period during your work day. Suppose I wanted to punch in early and, rather than eat, start my deliveries? I assume the preload is not wrapped so that would not be an option but to come in early just to sit and have "lunch" just does not make sense to me.

 

[old levi's]

Work as directed. Take the unpaid hour lunch. End of story.

 

[JustTired]

I'm always baffled by this. Those who won't take a lunch break and those who say they can't.

In my mind, it is a safety/health issue. I always wonder if these same drivers who skip their lunch would do so if they worked in a factory or elsewhere. Very doubtful. Having said that....I see no reason for it to be any different as a UPS driver.

What would happen if the company attempted to take the lunch break away in the next contract? I'm guessing that those same drivers who complain about being forced to take a lunch would be the most vocal in trying to retain it.

Taking your lunch first thing in the morning or the last thing in the evening defeats the purpose of the break. Not to mention it is in violation of the contract.

I guess that every 6 months we will have the same conversation. A lot of you just don't get it. It's very simple.....take your lunch break or be in violation of the contract (if not state law).

 

[grgrcr88]

Along those same lines, suppose for one moment you had an accident at aboout 4pm, a very serious accident, God forbid, maybe even a fatality in the other vehicle.

The family of the victim gets a lawyer and starts looking for anything they can. They go thru your timecard and see you took no lunch or break that day. Now your at a deposition for a wrongful death suit, based on the fact you were not rested and refreshed over your lunch break, like your employer and your Union says you should be.

I know its a worst case, but you should never take that chance!!!

 

[JustTired]

This is something I posted over 2 years ago. At this point I think it bears repeating.

A Lunch Story

Once upon a time, there was a driver named Joe. He would go to work every day,deliver his packages all morning, stop for lunch,deliver and pickup his packages all afternoon, return to the building and go home in time to watch Joe Jr. play baseball.
One day the company decided to change the allowance on his route. Suddenly Joe finds that he has more work than he used to have and can't get done in time to get home and watch Jr. play baseball like he used to.
So Joe decides that the only way he can make it home in time is to skip his lunch. This works well and again he can make it home in time for the game.
The company notices that even though Joe has more work, he is getting done at the same time he used to before the added work. So they decide to give him more work. Now Joe is back to working more hours and missing Jr's games. So Joe decides that if he can't make the games, then he will go back to taking his lunch. Besides, he missed the chance to relax a little in the middle of the day and could feel his health was suffering somewhat because of it.
But wait, now if Joe takes his lunch, he will have missed business deliveries and missed pickups. He won't get his air packages and pickups back in time,either. Joe complains that he doesn't have time to take a lunch, but the complaint falls on deaf ears. After all, he set the precedent by skipping his lunch all that time.
Now Joe has committed himself to a life of calling for some one to come get his pickup volume off of him daily. If he wants to see a game or interact with his family, he has to take a day off. He is working harder than he had to by not taking his lunch every day. And while those games he did get to see will no doubt have good memories for him, he will end up spending the rest of his working life paying for them.
This scenario is playing itself out in centers all across the country. And while there is no easy answer, skipping your lunch is not one of them. That 1/2 hr or hour that you were entitled to will just be replaced with more work if you choose not to take it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that's what's happening. JUST TAKE YOUR LUNCH!! Everything else is pretty much out of control.

 

[ol'browneye]

Here in Missouri we get one hour lunch. Last year we were required to put it in the diad as 50 minutes lunch and 10 minutes paid break in "other work". Lately we have noticed that if you don't take all your lunch, they just take out what lunch you did put in.

Case in point, Friday I took my 10 minutes "paid break" and 20 minutes lunch for a total of 30 minutes lunch. That's all I put in my board. I skipped the rest to get somewhere on time and Monday's report showed me getting paid correctly. They only took out 30 minutes.