Hourly Employees Must Be Paid For Working Through Lunch

If you are paid by the hour, be wary of your company’s policies regarding working through breaks, lunches, and after your shift – especially when lunch deductions are automatic. Working more hours than you are paid for could be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In Manning v. Boston Med. Ctr. Corp., a group of hospital workers for the BMC claimed that they worked through breaks and outside of their schedule without extra pay. BMC allegedly had a timekeeping system to deduct pay and had received complaints in the past over unpaid extra work.

While this case involved a number of issues related to the Labor Management Relations Act, unions, the grievance process, and collective bargaining agreements, as well as class action pleadings and the like, the case affirmed that where companies fail to pay wages, courts should not dismiss those claims at the opening stages without good cause and fair hearing.