Are Your Teachers Taking Lunch Breaks When They Should?

Your district provides full-time teachers with a 30-minute lunch break. You are fulfilling all your legal obligations, right? The answer to that question depends on when your teachers are allowed to take their lunch breaks. It may be surprising to learn, but when you offer lunch breaks is equally important in terms of compliance with New York State Labor Law, as whether you offer employees a lunch break at all.

If the full-time teachers in your district, who are on duty for at least five hours per day, receive a 30-minute lunch break you have complied with Section 3029 of the New York State Education Law. However, your responsibilities when it comes to your teachers’ lunch breaks do not end there. You must also ensure that their breaks comply with Section 162 of the New York State Labor Law as well.

The Labor Law requires every employee to be allowed at least 30 minutes for the “noon day meal”. It is important to note that the Law uses the term “noon day meal” not just “lunch” or “meal period”, confusing the two is where you could become out of compliance. The Law defines “noon day meal period” as a time extending from 11:00am to 2:00pm.” If your teachers’ lunch breaks are scheduled outside of the period prescribed by the Labor Law, your district is likely out of compliance with the Labor Law.

Some employers and even employees wonder if this requirement can be waived. In American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Roberts, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the break requirements found in Section 162 of the Labor Law can be waived but only through a collective bargaining agreement and only so long as there is an exchange of a benefit for the waiver.

The bottom line in this regard is that teachers’ lunch breaks generally must be scheduled in compliance with both Section 3029 of the Education Law and Section 162 of the Labor Law. To comply with the Education Law, breaks for full-time teachers must be at least 30 minutes in length and be free of assigned duties. To comply with the Labor Law, the lunch break must be scheduled between the hours of 11:00am and 2:00pm. Section 162 of the Labor Law can only be waived through collective bargaining, and even then only under very limited circumstances.

If you have any questions or need any assistance with respect to these matters, please feel free to contact us.