Docked for breaks i don't have.

[Swimminglikeaswan]

Hi! A quick q pleasethankyou. We are permanantly short staffed at work so stopping for a break is not an option. We all pull together, suck it up, and work shifts from start to end non- stop. What really annoys me about this, is the company i work for still deducts breaks from our pay. Is this legal?

Down tools at break time. X

OP, can you answer the question re how long a shift is?

OP, you nees to speak to your manager and insist that they need to request further up the chain if needs be that shifts are run with enough staff to cover breaktimes. You might want to consider joining a union.

You might be okay now with not having a break, but long term it isn't healthy to do a whole shift without time to sit down and eat/drink/go to the loo etc.

Having worked in pubs before I am well aware of the culture of pulling together and being team players. This is total brainwashing set by bad management. Management will always put on minimum staff if there are people who are willing to suck it up. This is not good for you and it's not legal. I then went onto work in HR and learnt how things ought to work.

OP,

Although it sounds nice that your team members look out for each other, in the long run you are helping management to exploit workers. It might be good to ring ACAS for some ideas on how to handle the situation. Good luck

First of all all of you need to take a break and if that means people have to wait longer as only one person is on it’s a simple “sorry sir/madam unfortunately we are short staffed so you will need to wait”

No one should be run off their feet. Realistically all the time it’s working they won’t employ anyone else to cover or force management to do so and you will be losing money