Meal Periods -- New York State

[Guest justbe]

NYS DOL Regulations require 30 minute unpaid meal periods -- should that be interpreted to mean "required to provide" or "required to make employees take" -- the later seems very difficult to enforce -- Any insight?

[oriecat]

I think it would be safest to contact the NY DOL for their interpretation, because all states are different. I have ee's in OR & WA. In OR, the breaks are required, the employee cannot waive them, so you have to watch and force the ee's to take them. In WA, ee's can waive the required breaks, but you must provide them the opportunity. I didn't see anything on the NY DOL website that indicated which route they take...