Is the lunch break considered effective working time?

It is likely that you have at some point asked yourself whether the lunch break is effective working time, and the answer is that it depends on the time spent on it, the type of workday you are doing, the sector in which you work, and the type of employment agreement the company has.

11/8/2021

To be more specific, we can look for what the “Workers’ Statute” says on this subject, exactly in section 4 of article 34, which literally states: “Whenever the duration of the continuous daily workday exceeds 6 hours, a rest period must be established during it, lasting no less than fifteen minutes. This rest period will be considered effective working time when it is established or established by collective agreement or employment contract”.

Therefore, it is clear to us that what the Law establishes is this minimum time of 15 minutes of rest, for a workday of more than 6 hours, but each company can take advantage of what is established in its labor agreement, and in this case the time set could be more than a quarter of an hour, depending on the specific characteristics of the sector.

Another question closely related to this one is whether it is necessary to register this break for breakfast, and the answer is that if it is considered effective working time, and falls within the time limits explained in the previous paragraphs, it would not be necessary to register this stop.

Breakfast break

But if the time spent taking this break is more than 15 minutes, it would be necessary to record it; in any case, it would be advisable to record all the stops, and with systems like Timenet this is very easy to do, since you only need a device with an internet connection, and it would be a very effective way of avoiding possible conflicts!

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