Can a company hold a mandatory meeting at lunch hour?
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Can a company hold a mandatory meeting at lunch hour?
We are a company of 600 employees. Management employees are being told they must attend a mandatory meeting once a month during our lunch hour. The company provides food, but does not take in to account food allergies, or preferences some employees are vegetarian. Can the company legally take away lunch hour if they ‘feed us’?
Asked on October 3, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Managers have no legal right to lunch (assuming they truly meet the criteria to be considered managers--e.g. the criteria for overtime exemption) and so can be required to work through their lunches. In fact, many companies don't even give management-level staff a formal lunch break at will: you eat when you can. So yes, they can have a lunch-hour meeting. Anyone with food issues should brown bag it that day.
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