not taking lunch and getting paid

ny804

Member
Ever since that lawsuit was settled in Ca. we started not taking lunch but we were getting paid for that hr. Of course all good things must come to an end when working for UPS. They now instructing everyone that you must take an hour lunch. So we like to push the envelope a little bit about 30 guys didn't take lunch. It was pretty funny seeing everyone line up in the office receiving verbal warnings for failing to follow instructions. Anybody else have this going on.
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
Ever since that lawsuit was settled in Ca. we started not taking lunch but we were getting paid for that hr. Of course all good things must come to an end when working for UPS. They now instructing everyone that you must take an hour lunch. So we like to push the envelope a little bit about 30 guys didn't take lunch. It was pretty funny seeing everyone line up in the office receiving verbal warnings for failing to follow instructions. Anybody else have this going on.


My question is: why is the company so hell-bent on everyone putting a lunch in their DIAD? The only logical answer is they enjoy the free labor they recieve when drivers choose to work through it. Can someone give me a different reason?
 

ny804

Member
It was funny seeing 30 guys going in one by one. It's pretty sad when this company is looking to discipline people for working. Shop steward is now pulling records for those guys who record an hr lunch but work thru it
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
It was funny seeing 30 guys going in one by one. It's pretty sad when this company is looking to discipline people for working. Shop steward is now pulling records for those guys who record an hr lunch but work thru it

If your shop steward does that he will only be incriminating his union members. Anybody who records an hour lunch and works through is falsifying delivery records and that is grounds for termination.

To avoid all the B.S., take your lunch. If you have to work through it call your manager and ask him or her to be paid. If he/she declines and you really need to get out, don't put your lunch in. The disipline for that will be less than falsifying records and dishonesty.
 

looper804

Is it time to go home yet
Ever since that lawsuit was settled in Ca. we started not taking lunch but we were getting paid for that hr. Of course all good things must come to an end when working for UPS. They now instructing everyone that you must take an hour lunch. So we like to push the envelope a little bit about 30 guys didn't take lunch. It was pretty funny seeing everyone line up in the office receiving verbal warnings for failing to follow instructions. Anybody else have this going on.
Just to understand your post a little more,are you from local 804? I only ask because of your ny804 handle.If you are we are contractually bound in 804 to take an hour lunch.Other parts of the country seem to have different rules.
 

DS

Fenderbender
My question is: why is the company so hell-bent on everyone putting a lunch in their DIAD? The only logical answer is they enjoy the free labor they recieve when drivers choose to work through it. Can someone give me a different reason?
Yes.It all comes down to honesty and integrity on both the driver and the management team.Its simple really,put every break in your board.If you take 20 minutes,put it in.If you select a code 05,its an agreement that you will be paid "pay actual" which literally means you have agreed to work through some,or all of your lunch in lieu of pay.The only problem with this is it tempts drivers to steal time.If for some reason,your center won't allow a code 05,take your break,call for help,on those days when you don't have time to stop .Hopefully your mngmt team will clue in .
 

helenofcalifornia

Well-Known Member
So how do they manage to work through their lunches? Our boards in California lock us out so that we can't use them? Do they actually pre-record those stops, deliver them, and then have a sudden "spurt" of fantastic activity after "lunch" when they do 20 stops in 5 minutes?
We can take 1/2 hour lunches instead of the full hour here.
We had to jump through hoops to get that OK'd, but it works for most of us.
 

under the radar

A Trained Professional
I was shocked to see that some areas of the country have an hour lunch. I'm done eating in twenty minutes! What do you do for the next forty? All it would mean for me is that I would get home a half hour later than I do now. Brutal! Don't bring that stuff around here!
 

DS

Fenderbender
This is bizzare to me.How can they expect every driver to stop at 12 noon for an hour ,hardly any businesses adhere to this set shutdown time.What happens if someone needs to use ups sonic during this time?
What if a big shipper closes at 12:30? How is this even close to sychronizing the world of business?
 

BigBrownSanta

Well-Known Member
If your shop steward does that he will only be incriminating his union members. Anybody who records an hour lunch and works through is falsifying delivery records and that is grounds for termination.

The company encourages you to falsify the delivery records. They never tell you to actually take your lunch, they only tell you to record the hour. Would they fire someone for working as directed?

:dont_know:
 

DS

Fenderbender
The company encourages you to falsify the delivery records. They never tell you to actually take your lunch, they only tell you to record the hour. Would they fire someone for working as directed?

:dont_know:
I dont really understand,are you getting paid for skipping lunch?
 

BigBrownSanta

Well-Known Member
I dont really understand,are you getting paid for skipping lunch?
Do you mean me personally? No. I take and record my lunch as per the contract from 12 to 1 every day. I made my peace with the lunch hour issue last year. I take it no matter what.

My point was that the sups never say to actually take a lunch, just to record the lunch in your diad.

BTW, if I did choose to skip my lunch and not record it, I would not have an hour taken out of my time. Code 05. No one has been written up for it here in my center, in fact there are drivers here that are skipping lunch and not recording it (and getting paid) just to see if they can get written up for it.
 

ny804

Member
From what I've been told our contract says we have the right to an hour lunch. Not that we have to take it, especially now since Ups lost that lawsuit for not paying drivers when they worked thru lunch. We've been getting paid if you didn't record a lunch hour or break. That's why at most pcm's they were telling you to record your breaks in the diad. Our diads don't shut down in the middle of the day for lunch.
 

pretzel_man

Well-Known Member
My question is: why is the company so hell-bent on everyone putting a lunch in their DIAD? The only logical answer is they enjoy the free labor they recieve when drivers choose to work through it. Can someone give me a different reason?

Actually, no... Reports are run that check if you've done any delivery work during your lunch period.

Here's the reason.

UPS used to not care about what you did during your "lunch period". You didn't have to record that you took a lunch, and the systems would automatically deduct your standard lunch period.

Then came the lawsuits. Companies got sued for not allowing employees to take an uninterupted luch period.

UPS said that the company didn't control your lunch and could not monitor if you took it or not.

The courts said BS. UPS had to be more accountable to ensuring that lunch was taken.

UPS runs lots of reports to check that lunch was properly taken, and legal monitors the results.

So, the push is NOT to get you to do work during lunch. Its so the company doesn't get sued by a class action lawsuit.

Take your lunch.

P-Man
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
We are required to enter a 45 minute lunch and a 10 minute break in our DIADs and, at first, we were required to show our boards to a member of mgt before we punched out, as if we were still in grade school. They have backed off on that as all of our drivers enter the appropriate data on a daily basis. They don't care what times you put in just as long as you have 45 minutes for lunch and 10 for your break. They do not go back to delivery records to see if we are working during the times that we put in for our lunch/break nor do they really care. I always put the same times in as I was told when I was first hired that we had to take our break between the 1st and 3rd hour and our lunch between the 3rd and 5th hour and it is just a part of my routine. The part that I do have a problem with is if I have something going on that evening and I would like to get done early I have to ask permission to not enter a lunch and invariably we are told no so I end up working through lunch and break, entering the times but eating the hour, so that I can make it to where I need to be on time. Trust me, I make up that hour during the remainder of the week.
 

looper804

Is it time to go home yet
I was shocked to see that some areas of the country have an hour lunch. I'm done eating in twenty minutes! What do you do for the next forty? All it would mean for me is that I would get home a half hour later than I do now. Brutal! Don't bring that stuff around here!
Usually you eat with other drivers and shoot the breeze.During the summer go to the beach.Read a newspaper.Go shopping.Etc. Its your hour,do as you wish.Also our hour can be taken any time between 1pm and 3pm.You could also break it up.20 min for breakfast and then 40 min for lunch.An hour seems like a long time but you would be surprised how fast it goes by sometimes.
 

outta hours

Well-Known Member
The flavor of the month in my district is everyone must put in an hour lunch break into their DIAD. That being said the entire management staff in my center has repeatedly told drivers that if "they choose to skip their lunch to get finished earlier, and have more time with their family" then that's fine with them. "Just be sure you record an hour lunch in your board." Is this falsifying records? Sure it is but because they are saving $42.28 per hr. per driver doing this they look the other way. And they would never audit records to prove otherwise because they benefit financially from the fraud.

It's no different then in the morning before start time. Why don't they enforce the no working off the clock policy and get drivers off their cars before start time? Same answer applies here also free labor. At that dollar amount per driver that can add up to a substantial amount very quickly. And some drivers who are on their cars early also work through their lunch.

Can't you see it this is what the company wants you to think and do by telling you put in your lunch but you don't have to actually take it. They are master manipulators,they have thought of every tactic that will entice you to work for free each day. Even if they only get 10-15 min on the low end and up 60 min. or more by working before start time and skipping lunch on the high end. They save and make millions a day because they know you don't want to deliver after dark, or you want to make it to your kids game, or be out longer in the heat or cold, etc. etc. They are more effective than any cult with the psychological control games they play. If you don't believe that analyze it in the simplest of terms. What hourly paying job have you have known people to work faster and many cases for free to finish the job in less time than they are being paid for? Just know that they will always dangle the carrot (the things you want to be off for) in front of you to make you go faster. And the sad thing is many of you will continue to chase it, but you will never catch it. No one ever told you when you were hired that you would be working 8-5. Accept your responsibility to work safely and be paid for all the time you work. No matter how long or late it may be. Or if you are interested in running all day and working off the clock and being paid that way by the package, mile, and stop FEDEX Ground is always in need of "independent contractors."
 
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