Kentucky bill strips workers of meal, rest breaks

Employers in the US state of Kentucky would no longer be required to give employees a "reasonable" amount of time for lunch or rest breaks under a committee-approved bill passed earlier this week by Republicans, Kentucky Lantern reported.

Legislation HB 500, introduced by Phillip Pratt, a Republican from Georgetown, would curb state laws mandating rest intervals every four hours and lunch breaks every three to five hours throughout a work shift.

The bill would also:

• Shield companies from penalties if they fail to pay overtime or the minimum wage to workers who commute to and from work. 
• Keep companies from facing penalties if they fail to pay overtime or the minimum wage for tasks completed by employees before or after their "principal" job activity.
• Remove a state law that mandates companies to pay overtime to workers who report for work seven days in a row and asks them to put in at least forty hours a week.

Pratt said, "You have federal law, which says you must do this; then you have state law, which says you've got to do that. To run afoul of them becomes very easy."

Labour organisations, including the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, and representatives of the Kentucky Education and Labour Cabinet voiced grave reservations and opposition to the bill, claiming that it may jeopardise long-standing pay and workplace rights for workers in Kentucky.