Is lunchtime included in the eight-hour work day?
Dear Career Advisor:
I would like to know if, as a government worker, break-time is included in the eight-hour shift.
Yours truly,
Andrew
Dear Andrew:
Thank you for your question. As this is a recurring concern of many workers, for clarity we are rephrasing to read, “Is lunchtime counted as part of the eight hours of work in a regular work day?”
As stated in law, employers are required to make allowance in the work schedule during the normal workday of eight hours for employees to have lunch break. For guidance, we refer to section 10 of the Jamaican Shops and Offices Act, which states, inter alia…
“Every person employed in or about the business of any shop shall be allowed –
a) A luncheon interval of not less than three-quarters of an hour during the period between half past eleven o’clock in the morning and two o’clock in the afternoon on any day on which his hours of employment include the whole of that period”.
There is nowhere in the law that stipulates that lunchtime should be counted as a part of the workday, nor does it require employers to compensate employees for time taken as lunch break. By practice however, some companies include this one-hour (or 45 minutes) in the workday, while others may exclude it. For example, in the instances where the lunch break is included as part of the compensable workday, the work duration will run for eight hours, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm or 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Where the lunch break is not factored as compensable, the work schedule will run for a span of nine hours.
The provisions of the law are applicable to all workers, whether with government or otherwise.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Career Advisor
Carolyn Marie Smith is associate vice-president of student services at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Manchester. Submit questions to her at careeradvisor@ncu.edu.jm
