10/30/2014 9:10 AM
We punch in and out for lunch. Most companies in California do. Companies get sued/fined all the time for alleged break/lunch/timekeeping violations. Scenario goes like this: Disgruntled employee "A" goes to the state agency responsible for such things and says "my employer has me at work for 8.5 hours, .5 hour of which is an unpaid lunch. Many times they don't let me take my lunch or only give me 10 minutes or less yet charge me .5 hours for it."
State agency visits employer and says : "prove to us that you have been providing this employee with a proper lunch break." Employer has no record of such and ends up being fined tens of thousands of dollars as state agency decides that since employee "A" has been abused and taken advantage of they are going to give every employee in the company back pay for lunches missed for the last 2 years , plus penalties.
At least thats how it works in California anyway, I think. If you have a time clock, and the staff is at the shop for lunch anyway, why not?