How long is your lunchbreak at work and do you get paid for it?

[FenellaBestwick]

I'm a recent returner to work and I'm shocked but not surprised at the erosion of work conditions. I get half an hour for lunch, unpaid. It means there's little time to re-charge your batteries. Just get to the staffroom, wolf your food and get back on the shop-floor (care sector). When I last worked (pre dc), I had a full hour paid and 15mins break morning and afternoon. What are your lunch breaks like?

I started working in the mid nineties in catering I would get a 30 min paid break and usually a 15min break too also paid. I got a hot meal provided and staff taxi home. But I started out on £3,50 an hour. I was self employed from 2003 until about five years ago and when I went back to employment (different industry) I got a 30 min unpaid break. This seems to be fairly standard now. I can only presume as wages increased, perks have decreased.

notknowledgeable
Is an unpaid 30 minute lunch in your contract ?

Never been paid for a lunch break in any place I've ever worked

An hour from end of morning lessons to start of afternoon lessons but I'm on an annual salary rather than an hourly rate so it's neither paid or unpaid.
I tend to eat at my desk while working.

NHS staff.

1 hour break, unpaid.
And we still lose 1 hour ‘break’ pay when we don’t get to take our break which is almost every day.

An hour paid.

1 hour paid. Drinks/snacks provided in kitchen.

I man reception as well as my main job so do still answer phone/deal with deliveries but it's infrequent and only takes a couple of minutes.

30 mins and unpaid. I eat at my desk then I have a 20 min walk every lunch. I work 3 days so only having 30 mins isn't too bad bearing in mind we have a pretty park and a waitrose on the doorstep.
I've never had a paid lunch break tbh.

When I worked in an office it was 40 mins unpaid.

In my old life, I had an hour - unpaid, but everyone took it. It was on a rota - I used to go to the beach for lunch!'

Then became a teacher - so we obviously had breaks and lunch, but a lot if it was spent preparing for the afternoon.

Now - I have between 1/2 hr - 1 hr unpaid.

It's important to me to take my lunch and recharge the batteries. There's also evidence that a quick walk in the afternoon - or even a power nap - can also help with recharging a battery

I have been in the NHS for 33 years and have never been paid for lunch or our 15 min "teabreak" when we got one.
Now we are on HeRo. we get 30 minutes deducted automatically for lunch, and teabreaks are long gone 🥲.
We do work flexibly so we can clock out for longer (unpaid) breaks.

30 minutes unpaid. If I'm in the office I tend to work through but at home I do leave my desk and do something else for half an hour.

I'm paid for 37.5 hours per week, so I guess that means 9-5 with 30 minutes unpaid lunch break or 9-5.30 with an hour unpaid.

I wonder where you've worked for that to be the case OP?

In 35 years of work, I've never had a paid lunchbreak. That includes retail, office work, civil service and local government. In retail, two tea breaks were paid and taken away from the shop floor. In local government, paid tea breaks had been given up for the ability to make cups of tea through the day and drink while working.

But all lunch breaks were unpaid and you deducted any time taken from the working hours for that day,

I have no idea as we've never had formal lunch breaks (I'm sure in a contract somewhere we do). I eat as and when at my desk and carry on with the day, usually I take 30 ish minutes between heating up lunch, eating and doing something to switch off my head. Definitely not paid, but I don't have a clock in/clock out sort of role. I work until the work is done between roughly certain hours, but sometimes more or less. I don't think I've ever had a paid lunch though and even when I was 15 decades ago in my first job, we got 30 minutes unpaid.

I'm now retired and I've only ever had one job when I had paid lunch breaks.

It was in the early 1980s when I had a holiday job working in a factory. I did 12 hour shifts and was paid for the whole 12 hours. If memory serves I had two short breaks and one longer one but I don't remember how long they were.

It was on an assembly line so I couldn't just get up and stop what I was doing when I liked.

30 minutes, plus two 10 minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. The lunch break is unpaid but the 10 minutes are paid.

Technically an hour and no to being paid.

I've worked in large organisations for all of my adult life and never been paid for lunch.

In my old job, on paper, we worked 9.30am - 5pm & had an hours paid lunch & there was an informal policy of coffee break at 11am. But....I was overworked & understaffed so as the boss I never took these perks. And worked a HUGE amount of overtime. I had a staff member who'd been there a lifetime & you could actually set your clock by her. She has a very light touch desk job in an office but she even used the bathroom at exactly the same time every single day. Always without fail 10mins before the 'coffee break' she'd head to the loo. Then back to put the kettle. Back to the toilet again immediately after the coffee so the 15 mins was actually about 30mins in the end. Then down to the loo 10 mins before heading out the door on the dot at lunchtime for her hour. Back in an hour later & straight to the loo again so another 10 mins faffing. Meaning lunch was creeping into an hour & 15 mins.
Started putting on coat & 'tidying up' at 4.50 on the dot to be out the door at 5pm

She had it down pat. I didn't notice for ages but my office was right by the door to the stairs which led down to the floor where the toilets were. After a while I saw the patten. But you can't actually tell someone they can't use the bathroom.

I found it amusing at first but as mine went on & I was so frequently under savage pressure to keep the ship afloat & no matter what was going on she'd down tools & head away. It began to irritate me although she was not actually doing anything wrong per say

Now in a new local authority role & we work flexi time. 35 hour week + mandatory 30 min break for which we log out.

I'm enjoying it to be honest!

I'd say my former colleague is still like clockwork 😁

Started putting on coat & 'tidying up' at 4.50 on the dot to be out the door at 5pm

I had a job where anyone standing up to put their coat on before the dot of finishing time risked getting a disciplinary.

Half an hour paid but if I’m working from home loads longer if I’m honest! They treat me like shit so I have lost all my previous morals around it 🤷‍♀️

An hour unpaid.
The other place was 45 minutes unpaid and a RDO off each month.

I've always had paid 30min lunch break.

30 mins unpaid but on previous contracts had 30 mins at 10am break too but been paid for that.

30 mins but in reality 15 (if I am lucky!)
I take my own lunch and take (cold!) food that I can eat with a spoon for speed!