Overstaying Rest Breaks: Round Two

Our earlier post about the U.S. Labor Department's position on unauthorized extensions of rest breaks has generated additional comments and questions. We have responded to one comment at length beneath the post itself.

Another reader took the Labor Department's interpretation to mean that, if an employee impermissibly extends his or her rest break, then the whole rest break could be treated as non-compensable time under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In that reader's view, for example, if an employee stretches a ten-minute rest break to 20 minutes, then the full 20-minute period could be excluded from worktime, rather than only the additional ten minutes.

The Labor Department has said that this is not the case. In Opinion Letter of Wage-Hour Acting Administrator FLSA2001-16 (May 19, 2001), an employer asked the U.S. Wage and Hour Division whether an employee's unauthorized extension of a rest break under the conditions in Section 31a01(c), Field