To leave work early if I miss my lunch?

[leaveitnow1244]

Just that really - if I miss my lunch break am I entitled to leave early and not mention to anyone?

They leave it to us to take lunch breaks but a training course left me with just half hour to take lunch so I didn't bother and left early instead is this bad?

Absolute rubbish, my team can take their lunch or work through if they want to leave early, totally up to them. Working time directive does NOT stop that. In fact, I make sure they leave early if they didn’t take their lunch, totally up to them. And as mentioned, if they want to start late or finish early for appointments it’s absolutely fine without sacrificing their lunch as long as they have tried their best to get what needs to be done finished!

Nope, it is not illegal for an employee to not take their lunch if they don’t want to, it’s illegal for an employer to ask an employee not to take their lunch - which I would never do nor have I ever been asked 😂😂

Yes...it does.

www.acas.org.uk/rest-breaks

Yes, it is illegal.

Employees must take their breaks.

Where I work yes, as well as the last two places. I couldn't do that when I worked in contact centres though.

Some of you seem to work for controlling bosses! I'd much rather work through my lunch and finish an hr early, miss the traffic and get dinner on. What's the issue? They've still got their 7 hours out of me.

The issue is compliance with the law.

I don't know - that it's illegal, maybe?

In my old job it would have been fine, In my current job I’d get in a lot of trouble, only your manager/HR can answer this one for you

Surely it depends where OP works? If I worked though lunch and left early then it would mean my place of work closing as we're not allowed to lone work.

You’re an adult it’s up to you to fit in your lunch break. “Just” half an hour is pretty standard. Of course you can’t just leave early without telling anyone! Jesus wept.

If you signed a contract saying 9 to 5 (or anything specific), then yes, you are obliged to work the hours on your contract.

Breaks are a requirement ( depending on how many hours you work will depend on how much of a break you accumulate), and it is up to you whether you want to take it.

If you leave work early without telling anyone, you can be disciplined, and essentially sacked.

No and this drives me mad when staff do this. At my work You don’t get paid for your lunch break so by working through you gain nothing but a lack of time away from your desk. You certainly cannot leave early

No because you're not going be efficiently work if you don't eat lunch (as you would surely be hungry) and productivity levels drop off if you're not giving yourself a break during the working day.

Ha. I'm a teacher and often spend my lunch doing detentions etc. I can only imagine if I decided to walk out on my Year 11 class early because I only had half an hour lunch 😂

We have Flexi time and are still not allowed to do this, we need to take at least 30 mins lunch break. No one is going to be at their most productive when working 7hrs straight with no time for a break or to eat.

I’m not a controlling boss at all, if they need to leave early for an appointment I’m happy to accommodate but I need to know when they’re not going to be available during working hours. Our working day doesn’t finish at 4 so if they all decided to work through lunch and knock off early we’d have a problem.

We're allowed to do this
I work through lunch if I go into the office because I want to get out before the traffic builds up. I don't do it at home but am able to take shorter lunch to finish early or longer late and stay late

Has the OP said if she is paid for her lunch break? That is also very relevant. I am not paid for my 30 minute lunch break. So, if I ever miss it, for operational reasons, I will make a point of leaving early. Otherwise, my employer has had 30 minutes of my time for nothing. When I was in a job where my break was paid, I sucked it up when sometimes I had to work through lunch.

Legally speaking it doesn't matter if your break is paid or not, you're still not allowed to take it at the start or the end of your shift.

So if you do have no choice but to miss your unpaid break (which happens occasionally) you're supposed to take it as TOIL another day, or be paid the overtime you worked instead.

No.

It completely depends on your job and the contract you have signed. I wouldn't be able to do this in my job as I have to wait for another staff member to start their shift so I can end mine. But I'm a bit confused how you said you worked through your lunch break but then had half hour off for lunch. Surely the 30 minutes is your lunch break

Thank you for that info - I didn't realise that. I will remember that if/when it happens again (and it will!) My employer is funny about TOIL - doesn't like us accruing any.

I wfh and if I want to finish early or start late etc I'll miss lunch or have a shorter lunch. But it depends entirely on your employer of course. Mine is very happy with it as they know the work gets done and tbh I do more hours than they pay me for anyway and they know that.

Every place I’ve worked (and there’s been a lot) would be fine working lunch & skipping off early but they would expect the courtesy of being told - with the exception of one company who all worked flexi and you worked as you liked.