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5/14/2018 1:01:28 PM

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Section 5: OPA Board
Subject: OP hourly employees Msg# 1013643

From:

Dave Walter

Joined 6/19/2006

To:

Joe Reynolds (Read) OceanPinesForum.com

Joined 8/1/1999

Joe, per the employee handbook:

Employees that work an 8 hour day are allowed an unpaid 30 minute lunch break. Lunch breaks are generally taken between the hours of 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM. The schedule for meal periods should be established on the basis of work requirements in each office. Staggered meal periods may be necessary in customer service locations. Supervisors should be sure that each location is adequately staffed and that someone with authority to resolve minor problems is available at all times.

Two paid rest periods of 15 minutes each should be permitted each day. The schedule for these breaks should depend completely on the needs of each office. Rest periods are considered time worked, and employees will receive compensation for such periods. Employees that work less than a 7 hour day should check with their department about lunch breaks and rest periods.

Seems clear, breaks have been given for at least 18 years to my knowledge.

For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where:
Actually, I am still trying to get to the bottom of this.

I wrote the board and GM last week:

John, With regard to your official explanation of employee breaks, frankly, I still do not understand.

You wrote that some employees were taking their breaks in conjunction with lunch breaks; “thus, they were taking an hour off for lunch and the association was paying them for 40 hours when they were only working 37.5 hours.”

The following are some issues I do not fully understand. Perhaps the board does.

• Is the lunch break a half hour and are these employees paid for time during the lunch break or not?
• What are the other breaks they were taking with lunch breaks? Are there allocated break times in the morning and/or afternoon? If so, are those break times paid or unpaid, and what are the lengths of those breaks?
• If there are/were no allocated paid break times other than perhaps lunch, how could employees add non-paid break times to the lunch time, assuming the lunch time was paid break time?
• If there were paid break times other than perhaps a paid lunch break, what was the financial problem?
• Perhaps the HR employee was correct in that it would take 20 minutes to explain and I would not understand it anyway.
• If any board members reading this have a full understanding of this new implementation of an old policy, I would appreciate the explanation.

Joe Reynolds

Todays I see a somewhat different version in the Ocean Pines Progress, and sent another email to the GM and board:

John, I am still hoping to obtain clarity with regard to the hourly employee break times.

I have seen no response to my questions in an earlier email, and I now see something in a local paper that adds additional confusion.

The paper states, “An informed source with knowledge of the change in the policy said that the old policy gave hourly employees an hour off for lunch, with half of it paid by the OPA. Under the new policy, hourly employees won’t get paid for any portion of the hour they are given for lunch.
Why is something that should be so simple to explain remain shrouded in confusion?

Answers to my questions would go a long way towards clarification.

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