Mass-Peculiarities: An Employers Guide to Wage & Hour Law in the Bay State 2022 Edition
18 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. © 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP that time. 65 According to the Massachusetts Attorney General, employees must also be allowed to pray during meal breaks. 66 One Superior Court case reiterated that under Massachusetts law, an employee must be “relieved of all work-related duties” during a meal break; otherwise the time is compensable. 67 The court found security officers’ meal break time compensable because, among other things, the officers were required to keep their radios on and remain on-site during their breaks. 68 The Attorney General has enforcement authority for the meal break statute. Any employer or agent of the employer that violates the provisions of the statute may be subject to fines ranging between $300.00 and $600.00. 69 a. Exemptions The statute specifically exempts employers in the following industries from the meal break requirement: • Iron works • Glass works • Paper mills • Letterpress establishments • Print works • Bleaching works • Dyeing works 70 In addition, the Attorney General may grant exemptions to factories, workshops, or mechanical establishments if such exemptions are deemed necessary because of the “continuous nature of the 65 DLS Opinion Let ter MW-2003-008 (Aug. 5, 2003) (employees must be paid for meal break t ime where required to remain on employer’s premises). See also Office of Massachuset t s At torney General, Meal Breaks , available at ht tps://www.mass.gov/guides/breaks-and-t ime-off#meal-breaks ( hereinafter, “ Meal Breaks ”) (last visited July 18, 2021). 66 Meal Breaks , supra note 59. 67 DeVito v. Longwood Sec. Servs., Inc ., 2016 WL 8200495 (Mass, Super. Ct . Dec. 23, 2016). The court rejected the federal standard, which requires compensat ion only if meal break t ime was spent “predominant ly for the benefit of the employer.” Id . at *1; see also Romulus v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc. , 321 F.R.D. 464, 470 n.4 (D. Mass. 2017) (cit ing DeVito for the proposit ion that meal t ime is compensable where an employee must remain on the premises). 68 DeVito , 2016 WL 8200495, at *1. 69 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 100. The meal break statute states that any “employer, superintendent, overseer or agent who violates this sect ion shall be punished by a fine of not less than three hundred nor more than six hundred dollars.” 70 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 101.
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