Must I take lunch, and more legal puzzlers
Q: I work at a desk job for a small contractor at a federal facility on a task that has no immediate impact on health, safety or security. We are required to take an unpaid one-hour lunch break during our eight-hour shift, not at the beginning or end. Is it legal to require that break of us, whether we want it or not?
A: Legal? Yep.
Employers can generally set the hours they want you to work, and the "no front- or end-loading lunch breaks" rule ensures that they will be staffed from open to close. Bear in mind, however, that you may be entitled to pay if you end up working during that lunch hour.
Q: My employer is closing its location and moving to two different locations in a few months. Employees who will be laid off have been told they will forfeit their severance if they leave early, to accept another job for instance. Is it legal?
A: Legal? 'Fraid so.
Employment attorneys Declan Leonard of Berenzweig Leonard and Carla Murphy of Duane Morris confirm: Unless you have a contract specifically guaranteeing severance - as many high-level executives do - it's entirely up to the employer whether to offer severance and to set conditions on paying it out. Workers can negotiate for more, but they're not legally entitled to it no matter how loyal they've been.
In your case, your employer is using severance as a retention bonus to keep staff around until the bitter end. The good news is, you have several months' notice to conduct a job search - and if you play it right, you can defer the start date of your next job until right after the signature dries on your severance check.
Q: Is it legal for a company to charge its delivery truck drivers a $500 fee if they damage a truck in an accident?
A: Legal? Maybe.
Drivers meeting certain federal Transportation and Labor Department criteria qualify for the "motor carrier exemption" under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Leonard says. Labor Department policy is that employers can't charge those exempt drivers for accidental damage to company equipment.
For drivers who don't meet those criteria, the federal rules are similar to rules on charging hourly workers for uniforms and other office supplies, Murphy says: The amount charged can't reduce the worker's hourly pay for the workweek below minimum wage. And, Leonard says, some states are stricter, requiring proof the driver was willfully reckless. Leonard urges employers to put their policy in writing and make all employees aware from day one.
My take: Wouldn't safe-driving bonuses be equally effective incentives to drive carefully - and less punitive when a careful driver has an unavoidable fender bender?
• Miller has written for and edited tax publications for 16 years, most recently for the accounting firm KPMG's Washington National Tax office. Ask her about your work dramas and traumas by emailing wpmagazine@washpost.com. On Twitter: @KarlaAtWork.