katie1962

Not sure if any can help, mostly advice needed right now. I have just returned to work ( in day care) after 2 days off and been told that my lunch break has been changed effective immediatly from 1 -2 to 1.45 until 3 (with my break added on to my lunch hour) ( plus I will be REALLY hungry by then )
Can they do this without any kind of consultation? I know that day care is one of those grey areas that seems to fall through the cracks of good rates of pay etc. I just feel a little taken advantage of today

fledermaus

In Ontario you have to have a break after working for 5 hours. So if you start at 8:45 then yes they can do it. But unless you are in a union then my experience of employment rights here is that if you want the job then you suck it up.

DaveLovesDee

It could depend on which Province you work in. Also, having done scheduling as part of my work, break times are almost always scheduled to cover the needs of the business or organisation, not the needs of the employee except in exceptional circumstances.

HRSDC
Most jurisdictions in Canada (British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan) provide that an employee is entitled to a meal break of at least one-half hour after each period of five consecutive hours of work. Similar provisions in Alberta allow eligible employees to take at least a one-half hour break during each shift in excess of five hours. Employees in Yukon are entitled to one half-hour break after five consecutive hours of work if they work ten hours or less on that day, or after six consecutive hours on a day where they work more than ten hours. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador awards to employees a meal break of one hour after five consecu tive hours of work. Many jurisdictions provide that the meal break can be suspended during an emergency or unforeseeable event, and that employees may, in certain circums tances, shorten or forego the meal break. In Ontario, an employee may agree to split a break in two periods totalling 30 minutes. Where necessary for medical reasons, employees in Saskatchewan are entitled to take a meal break at another time.

Employers are not normally required to pay employees for time spent on a meal break. However, in some jurisdictions, employees who are required to remain at their work station or to be available for work during a meal break must be paid for that period as if work was being performed.

Moreover, no legislation obliges an employer to provide coffee breaks to employees. However, if a coffee break is provided in Ontario, Quebec or Saskatchewan, employers must consider it as time worked.