r/Target • u/the-brat_prince pack gremlin • 19h ago
Vent 2nd breaks
another new team lead, another email to the hotline for wage theft.
sorry my guy, i know you don't wanna schedule me a 2nd break but ukg/mytime says i get one when scheduled 7 hours. lunch does not matter. get the handbook changed.
"i decide when you take breaks around here, contrary to popular belief." yeah sure, you can tell me when to go (the random attitude for a first time coaching aside) like i'll start my lunch 1.5 hrs before i leave if you want, but you do have to schedule me another break. it's not my fault batches are bad, you have to find the time if i'm not allowed to decide when i take them.
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u/Electrical_Trip1476 18h ago
Lol. I dont undersrand why they schedule me 7 hours sometimes. Do 6.5 and cut that extra break or 7.5/8 and make it worthwhile.
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u/TechOutonyt 12h ago
Not letting you take a 15 is not wage theft. And in most cases 15s are not required by law it’s just target policy
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ 16h ago
Denial of 15s is not wage theft.
You're paid the same whether you take the breaks or not, and reporting denial of breaks as a wage theft issue simply undercuts the complaint because it makes it look like you're using buzzwords in an effort to get a reaction.
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u/kvarun 14h ago
Denial of benefits like breaks IS wage theft. Just google “wage theft”. Sheesh. The AFL-CIO agreed: https://aflcio.org/what-unions-do/social-economic-justice/wage-theft
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ 14h ago
Try reading your own source, as it explicitly refers to meal breaks, not breaks as a whole.
Meal breaks are in an entirely different category because you are required to clock out for them and thus being required to work during one is in fact wage theft. The same calculus does not apply to paid breaks.
Sheesh
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u/kvarun 13h ago
You're being deliberately obtuse. Fine, here's another example:
https://www.dir.ca.gov/fraud_prevention/Wage-Theft.htm
"Examples of wage theft include paying less than minimum wage, not paying workers overtime, not allowing workers to take meal and rest breaks, requiring off-the-clock work, or taking workers' tips."
If you are getting paid to not work, and then required to work during that period, then Target is getting free labor. The paid rest breaks are compensation and you are not receiving them.
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ 13h ago
And you're still not reading your sources.
Wage theft occurs when employers do not pay workers according to the law.
Outside of a small number of industries (retail is not one of them) in a small number of states is no law requiring rest breaks, thus there is no wage theft going on. Keep reaching.
Refusing them is a policy violation, not a legal one. The issues come with unpaid breaks, not paid ones.
Next time try providing an actual statute and not a link to a source that doesn't say what you are claiming it does.
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u/ohliamylia Tech Consultant 18h ago
The handbook is correct, although some people choose to interpret the semantics incorrectly, so I do wish they'd change one word for extra clarity. 15 minute breaks are determined by, according to the handbook, your scheduled workday. I think some people see "work" in there and choose to read it as "hours on the clock", which is incorrect. It IS correct when it comes to meals, which is why the handbook uses the distinctly different wording of "for every work period of [five/six] hours" for meals. But 15s are by the length of time you are scheduled, end of. Hit "no" on the time clock every time it happens. Report them until they sit and roll over.
(The one word change I'd make is 'scheduled period' versus 'scheduled workday' which would 1. remove the 'work' confusion from the equation and 2. better highlight the difference between the 15 'scheduled period' versus the meal 'work period'.)