Bathroom breaks at work

[detlef]

My industry is a bit different than most in the fact that regularly scheduled breaks are not really very practical. I mean, if it's Friday at 8pm, we're not sending a waiter off for his 15 minute break or scheduled meal break. With that in mind, basically every restaurant I've ever been involved with just trusted the employees to take their breaks as they had a chance.

 

For instance, we open at 5:30 so we need to be completely ready by 5:30. Thing is, we're almost never busy right at 5:30 so most of the waiters just hang out and wait for their first table which may not arrive until 6. There's some side work to do and they often do some of it then (rather than at the end of the shift) but there's lots of time to hang out. Of course, with waiters, it's not about the hourly. I can assure you that they'd rather show up later and leave earlier rather than get the break in the middle. Every minute that they're there lowers their hourly wage because it's that much more time being averaged into their total tips earned.

 

In terms of cooks, it's pretty much the same deal. They take their breaks as they can. Those guys need to be locked and loaded at opening time but there's typically a lot of hanging out until the orders start rolling in. If a guy seems to always be sitting around or screwing off, he gets dealt with but he's often hanging himself because he's going to be in the weeds when it gets busy if he was jerking off all afternoon.

 

Also, at the end of every shift, we cook staff meal and everyone sits down to eat.

 

I do remember working for a short period of time at a large restaurant that had people who's job was to go around and give breaks. I remember being puzzled when a guy came up to me on my first shift and said, "I'm here to take over so you can have your break." I just sat outside on the curb for 15 minutes and came back.

[Kid Cid]

"...one hour or one-half hour for lunch, and coffee breaks as may have been established, but not to exceed fifteen (15) minutes per day."

 

This is exceptionally clear. An employee's coffee breaks may not total more than 15 minutes per day. Even the clause "as may have been established" only pertains to existing coffee breaks. Bathroom breaks are an entirely different matter. Since these are not covered in the contract, the Union should immediately file a grievence against the Company to put a halt to the enaction of a rule that clearly violates health standards and issues. If the Union is unwilling to deal with this issue on the employees behalf, than individuals should contact the next higher entity in their Union hierarchy. Also, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) should be contacted.

 

As stated by many in this post, if this is the only way management can deal with one guy reading the paper in the can every day then something should be done about the weak management. I would seriously suggest looking for another job. If the only way to increase productivity is to make sure that they are at their workstations for those extra 15 minutes per day, then there once again is something wrong with the way management is approaching the problem IMO. Not an organization I would want to work for.