• Wage and Hour

• Misclassification
• Meal and Rest Break Compliance
• Donning and Doffing
• Off-The-Clock Work
• On-Duty Meals
• Tip Pooling

• Employment Discrimination

• Age
• Disability
• Gender
• Race

• Selection and Test Validation

• Advice and Strategy

• Job Design
• Organizational Structure and Work Processes
• Deposition Strategy
• Expert Critiques

On-Duty Meals

Some employers require their hourly managers to take “on-duty”, on premises meal periods rather than regular meal periods off-premise because their managers need to remain in the store for business reasons. Employees typically sign a waiver which allows them to take their meal periods while still on duty, however, specific conditions must be met to make these agreements valid.

To ensure that these waivers are used appropriately, we conduct studies of managers’ tasks and activities during the work day to identify periods of time in which they could theoretically leave the store to take an off-premise meal period. We observe managers during their shifts and then determine how many 30-minute periods were available, if any, for them to take an off-premise meal period given the work performed in the store on that particular day. Looking across managers, we can also identify parts of the work day, if any, when few tasks occur that require the manager to stay on-premises. These analyses result in a clear picture of whether on-duty lunch waivers can be justified.