Legality of a Policy Change
 

GC Lawyers or anyone who might have experienced this:

When I was hired, among the rules and regulations was a policy that stated I had a 30 minute unpaid lunch break and 2 paid fifteen minute breaks. I was told I could either take an hour long lunch or I could take a 30 minute lunch and use my breaks throughout the day. I work 8:30-5:00 in order to achieve a 40 hour work week. This policy is still reflected in our current documentation.

However, recently, we have been under pressure to increase services despite a very limited staff. Our leadership is attempting to compel us all to work overtime, which is ok for some of the staff, but not others. The catch is that our leadership is now saying that we work only 37.5 hours per week and we have an hour long unpaid lunch break.

We've been told that all the policies will soon change and we will have to work an extra 2.5 hours per week in order to achieve a 40 hour work week. We will also be compelled to work overtime beyond that to get the work done.

Is this legal? I mean, can they change the working hours that we were all hired under without our consent? Or is the acceptance of a job and its requirements a verbal contract that can't simply be changed in a document?

I'm not positive about your state, but in mine employers can definitely reduce the number of working hours, regardless of what was agreed upon at the time of hire. Break laws vary from state to state, but again in my state there is no required break time for employees over 18.

Finally, most handbooks say somewhere in the introductory statement that policies are subject to change at anytime, and that language is usually repeated on the acknowledgement form that you signed.

I'd say your best bet is to go to your state's labor department website and look in the wage and hour section to see what they have to say about the issues that you're dealing with. Most sites have an FAQ in their wage and hour sections that spell things out in plain English, so you don't have to wade through the actual law.

I would think it would depend on whether you're exempt or not. If you get paid hourly, they must pay you for all of your time; it is illegal for them to sweep some of that time, and therefore money, under the rug, and if that's the case, you should contact the dept. of labor. On the other hand, if you're exempt (meaning salaried), I think you're stuck. Most salaried people understand that an official work day is 8 hours, but that frequently you work far more hours than that to get the job done. My office's official hours are 8:30-5:30, but I'm hardly ever out of here by 5:30 and only sometimes am I here by 8:30.

My concern is whether or not an acceptance of employment constitutes a verbal contract. The terms of my employment included paid breaks. Now, the new leadership is arbitrarily changing the policy. As an update, I checked with Labor Standards and, since we have our policy in writing, the employer can't change it.

You may want to run that by HR. There is probably a clause that says that management can change the policy at any time, without any prior written notification.