Non-Exempt Employees

The University provides all Non-Exempt Employees who work more than a five-hour workday an uninterrupted 30- to 60-minute meal period each day, depending on the position held. The meal period must begin no later than the end of the fifth hour of work. All Non-Exempt Employees are required to record the beginning and ending time of their meal period each workday.

Non-Exempt Employees working more than a 10-hour workday are provided a second meal period of at least 30 minutes. Non-Exempt Employees must begin the second meal period no later than the end of the 10th hour of work whenever a Non-Exempt Employee works that many hours in a workday.

During their meal periods, Non-Exempt Employees will be relieved of all work responsibilities and are free to leave the premises. Non-Exempt Employees may be asked to confirm in writing that they have been relieved of all duty and otherwise provided all of their daily meal periods during the pertinent pay period, or in the alternative, identify any meal periods they missed. At no time may any Non-Exempt Employee perform off-the-clock work or otherwise alter, falsify, or manipulate any aspect of their timekeeping records to inaccurately reflect or hide meal periods. “Off-the-clock” work includes time spent performing job-related work not scheduled or requested by the University, regardless if such work is performed voluntarily.

Please note that no University Manager or Supervisor is authorized to instruct any Employee on how to spend their personal time during a meal period. Managers or Supervisors are not authorized or allowed to instruct any Employee to skip a meal period or work during a meal period. Employees are required to immediately report a Manager’s or Supervisor’s instruction to skip or work during a meal period to Human Resources.

Waiver of Meal Period. Non-Exempt Employees may waive their meal period when the University and Employee agree, and only under the following circumstances:

1. 1. If a Non-Exempt Employee will complete their workday in six hours, the meal period may be waived.
   2. Non-Exempt Employees who work more than 10 hours in a day may waive their second meal period only if they take their first meal period and they do not work more than 12 hours that day. Non-Exempt Employees working more than 12 hours in a workday may not waive the second meal period.

Non-Exempt Employees may not waive meal or rest periods to shorten their workday. Employees may not combine meal and rest periods.

On-Duty Meal Period. In very limited circumstances, the nature of a Non-Exempt Employee’s duties may prevent the Non-Exempt Employee from being able to be relieved of all duties for at least 30 minutes. These Non-Exempt Employees may be authorized to work an “on-duty meal period.” In such cases, the Non-Exempt Employee and the University must agree to an on-duty meal period in writing. Authorized on-duty meal periods will be paid and treated as hours worked.