He’s off the clock for his lunch time.
He will also find that he is required to take those lunches, and if he doesn’t he will be docked pay for them as if he had. This is federal law. He will be permitted only highly-regulated breaks.
The cell-phone restrictions are logical. They can be imposed for reasons of safety (to prevent workers from being distracted and injured) and security (not giving out details of operations to competitors) as well as productivity. Most people will never get anything done if they have access
to a smartphone.
Federal law does not mandate meal breaks:
However, most state law does:
Are Employers Legally Required to Give Employees Breaks?
Also, meal breaks are defined in most union contracts.
it makes it a challenge for me to reach my clients if they cant take a phone call, just saying
No. Federal law does not require meal breaks:
Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the work week and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.
Bona fide meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.
But as magellan said; some states do (only about half) and it is usually in most union contracts. And some states mandate breaks for workers under 18 years old but don’t for workers 18 and older although most employers for ease of administration will have the same meal and break rules for all workers.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/meal-rest-breaks-rights-employee-29773.html
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/meal-rest-breaks-rights-employee-29773.html
So in short what the DOL says is that if you offer short breaks, say 2-10 minute breaks during an 8 hour day, you have to pay them for those breaks as worked hours but if you have a 30 minute meal break, you don’t have to pay them for that time. But that is trumped by state law if the applicable state wage and hour laws are more generous to the worker. It always works that way and works that way regarding minimum wage – if the fed min wage is $7.25 and the state min wage is $8.25 you follow the state minimum wage but if a state says the min wage is $6.25 (and yes there are a few state with lower or no minimum wage) you follow the federal $7.25 minimum wage.
As far as docking workers for not taking an unpaid meal break if they actually worked through it is a big No-No everywhere, period, no exceptions. Employers must pay non-exempt workers for all time worked. Where I work, a manufacturer, if a non-exempt plant worker doesn’t take their unpaid meal break, we have to adjust their time card if the time clock auto deducts that time. We also require their supervisor to make a notation on their time card that the worker was authorized to work through their meal break. If the worker was not authorized to work through their meal break or works past their schedule and or overtime or fails to punch in or punch out, we still have to pay them for the time worked, but it becomes a disciplinary issue, they are assessed points just as we do for punching in too early or punching out late or calling out without sufficient notice. Once they accumulate a certain number of points during a one year period, they are terminated and this is clearly spelled out in the employee handbook and strictly and consistently enforced.