Providing hourly employees with unpaid meal breaks may seem like a straightforward thing to do, and it is done in thousands of workplaces on a daily basis. However, while the federal government doesn’t require employers to offer meal breaks, the logistics of taking workers off the clock for their meal periods can lead to litigation and government investigations if not done with considerable care.
SSM Health Care is one company that learned that lesson the hard way. In 2009, the medical corporation had to pay more than $1.7 million in back wages when the U.S. Department of Labor ruled that the company did not properly compensate more than 4,000 nurses who worked during at least part of their unpaid meal breaks.