After a two-year court battle, a Chicago woman who was fired for working through her lunch hour has been awarded unemployment benefits.
Sharon Smiley, 48, had worked for 10 years as a receptionist and administrative assistant at a Chicago real estate company called Equity Lifestyle Properties. On Jan. 28, 2010, she punched out of work for lunch but stayed at her desk working on a spreadsheet because she did not plan to eat that day, she told the Chicago Tribune.
"I thought, 'Well, I'm not hungry; I'll just do this work,'" she said, noting that a new boss had been piling the work on. Court filings show both sides agreed this was the first time Smiley had worked through lunch.
A manager told Smiley she was required to take a half-hour lunch break, a company policy for more than 10 years, and ordered her to go to human resources to discuss the issue. Smiley was then fired for misconduct and insubordination with the HR manager, who handed Smiley a pink slip claiming that Smiley interrupted her during the talk.
A Cook County judge ruled Smiley’s conduct didn’t amount to misconduct that would disqualify her for benefits, and the appellate court of Illinois agreed in a Jan. 11 ruling.
The "insubordination arose from [Smiley's] efforts to perform additional work for [her employer], beyond what was required of her," the court wrote, calling the denial of unemployment benefits to Smiley "clearly erroneous."
"I knew you couldn't eat lunch at your desk," Smiley told ABC News. "I was under the impression that because I was punched out, I could do what I want.
Illinois law requires employers to provide employees with a lunch break, but the law cannot be read to require the firing of a worker who declines a break in order to finish her work, Michael LeRoy, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told ABC.
"Nonetheless, Illinois is an employment-at-will state, which means the employer can fire someone for a good reason, no reason or a bad reason, as long as it is not discriminatory," he said.
Martin Malin, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law, pointed out that companies can be held liable in suits for unpaid overtime if employees work during mandatory lunch breaks with a supervisor’s knowledge. This typically happens when an employee sues a company for unpaid overtime under labor or minimum-wage laws, he told the Tribune.
Smiley represented herself after several lawyers turned down her case.
When she won her appeal, she called one of the lawyers she'd approached.
"I said, 'This is Sharon Smiley, and I just wanted to call and let you know that I did win my case, and I did it on my own,'" she told the Tribune.
jeez...messed UP. If I was in charge I would be happy to know I got an employee that devoted that he'd pass up his lunch break...Heck today I was 30 minutes early. I thought it was going to be treacherous driving from the snow so i left early. the drive wasn't so bad but I didn't want to clock in til the usually time so I did some work for that half hour for free.
When I worked for Harris Teeter we had a written rule that was enforced that you would be fired for working through your lunch. Firings were upheld in unemployment hearing and Yes I had to let a cutter go for this very reason
__________________
Joe Parajecki
Operations Manager/ Partner
Kettle Range Meat Company, Milwaukee WI
Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild
A lot depends on whether you are salary or hourly. I don't think it is an issue if you are salary. When I was in the business we were all hourly, even the Meat Mgr whose actual designation is Chief Journeyman. We complied with the labor law that anyone working over 5 hours (or is it 5.5?) must be given at least 30 minutes time off for lunch.
The bigger issue was really people working "off the clock" which was strictly forbidden by the union contract. The language was such that it was no different if a person had someone punch them in when they were not there ("stealing time") than if someone started working before punching in or kept working after punching out. The punishment was the same - termination. The latter was considered to be stealing time from other employees rather than the company. In the real world the only ones tempted to work off the clock were meat managers who had the pressure of having to produce results. I obeyed the rules and I did have a problem if other meat managers tried to work off the clock as it could give them an unfair advantage over me as far as department performance numbers. Not that I ever filed a complaint with the union over it. The fact was that the guys I knew who did that, were constantly abused by management to do more and more. I did not do it, and was much better treated and respected by management because they knew they could not f*** with me. So to me it all worked out. Of course if one of their own crew would file a grievance over it, they could have been fired.
What's a "break" or a "lunch"? I eat on my feet. It sucks. If I want to be able to go home relatively on time and spend time with my family (which I'm usually too tired for) breaks don't happen. Then I have my wife to deal with. It's like working 2 jobs. One pays and one doesn't but I still have to put up with the sh**.
In the environment I worked in your cutters would turn you in for skipping a break or lunch. You also got thrown off the block 5 minutes before quitting time to wash up, something required to be done on company time. I got reported once, learned my lesson. After all the contracts are agreed to by both the workers and the company so I had to comply.
with all the regulations now companies can get in trouble for letting people work through lunch breaks....I always take a 30 minute lunch break but I hardly ever take a 15 break unless we are really slow for some reason that day
Jimmy, very interesting- im glad you are sharing this- I never worked in a union - the last union store in maine was the last A&P in maine-that closed about 12 yrs ago Their use to be A&P's all over maine-along with First-National's=now none
On one hand, anyone working off the clock, kinda thwarts the whole productive system- but it use to happen all the time-we weren't a union shop. But then again, a lot of things use to happen, that always werent above board- think around christmas time even in chain stores-their were bottles in the cooler around the holidays and..... years ago, I've seen cutters coming back from a liquid lunch hour. I remember filling cutting vacations one summer early on- I walked into one meat department (this was a chain store) walked in the cooler, and this old cutter was smoking a cigar while grinding and a bottle of whiskey was floating in the corned beef brine barrel
When I first started in the business and made Meat Mgr, I worked for a non-union small chain of independents. I made a personal committment to myself that I would not leave each day before I had 100% representation in my case. Later the chain became unionized and I was reported for working off the clock and almost lost my job. I "got with the program" as really I had no choice. I then went to a major chain that was also union because their contract was much better and I made more as a cutter than I had made as a meat manager in the prior job. I was still a young hot dog and wanting to be the fastest and best. Soon I had a 12" steak knife held next to my ribs and was told to slow down, I was making them look bad, so I took that as a "teaching moment". Very soon though I was a meat manager for this chain too. I too remember in the old days the drinking just prior to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the drinking lunches. Also, smoking in the cooler while grinding or greaking beef, and even on the block in the cutting room, was normal once upon a time. When I FIRST got in the business, 1968-1969 before I was a journeyman, there was alsp regular sexual activity between the cutters and wrappers in the cooler every Saturday after noon, when production had ceased, and I was the apprentice assigned to clean up the cooler and cutting room. I was not a participant, these were folks from my parent's generation as i was the 17 year old newbie apprentice!
There are also those who "work through" lunch but actually then eat while they are working. There goal is just to get out a half hour sooner and productivity can suffer if you allow that.
Do you mean they brought three Snicker bars from home and ate them while cutting at the block, or do you mean they go buy something for 5 minutes and sit down and eat it for 15 more minutes and then go the the restroom for another 5?
-- Edited by Burgermeister on Wednesday 25th of January 2012 09:42:25 PM
I would love to work through lunch and go home earlier. But with a Union it is no.
This lady wasn't working "straight through". I think she free timed during lunch and then finished her scheduled shift.
One thing about working straight through. I really dislike it if/when it's abused (too frequent or at bad times) and messes up the night shift or puts the day shift in a jam. Also, I dislike it if the person who left early can't figure out why we're in bad shape the next morning.
I wonder how good a worker the fired lady was? Maybe she was no good and they needed a reason, any reason to get rid of her. Assuming she was OK, they should have given her a few written warnings first.
There are also those who "work through" lunch but actually then eat while they are working. There goal is just to get out a half hour sooner and productivity can suffer if you allow that.
I would love to work through lunch and go home earlier. But with a Union it is no.
This lady wasn't working "straight through". I think she free timed during lunch and then finished her scheduled shift.
One thing about working straight through. I really dislike it if/when it's abused (too frequent or at bad times) and messes up the night shift or puts the day shift in a jam. Also, I dislike it if the person who left early can't figure out why we're in bad shape the next morning.
I wonder how good a worker the fired lady was? Maybe she was no good and they needed a reason, any reason to get rid of her. Assuming she was OK, they should have given her a few written warnings first.
So would I..lol...I work through my lunch and there a few hours late
I treated my cutters like royalty- I let them work a 4-10 hr day work week-3 days off!
no working thru lunch hours
my wrappers always wamted to go home early, no matter how busy it was-
I've heard of that in other industries, but never grocery. I want to work for you. I don't know how you managed that. Having a cutter only work 4 days. What I'd like if I worked 4/10 would be to have my 3 days off from two weeks together. Work 8 days and then get 6 off. That would be almost like two vacations per month!
I always told my people that working off the clock was against company policy. If you punched ouy and worked the half hour then you could be fired. If you just worked thru and went home a half hour early I didn't like it but wouldn't fire them.
Jimmy, very interesting- im glad you are sharing this- I never worked in a union - the last union store in maine was the last A&P in maine-that closed about 12 yrs ago Their use to be A&P's all over maine-along with First-National's=now none
On one hand, anyone working off the clock, kinda thwarts the whole productive system- but it use to happen all the time-we weren't a union shop. But then again, a lot of things use to happen, that always werent above board- think around christmas time even in chain stores-their were bottles in the cooler around the holidays and..... years ago, I've seen cutters coming back from a liquid lunch hour. I remember filling cutting vacations one summer early on- I walked into one meat department (this was a chain store) walked in the cooler, and this old cutter was smoking a cigar while grinding and a bottle of whiskey was floating in the corned beef brine barrel
15 years ago when I was approached by the meat manager at the store I worked at about whether or not I wanted to work in the meat dept the manager gave me a 'tour' of the meat dept. At first I didn't like it, it was cold and it looked like a lot of work. Then, we toured the cooler, the old timer cutter was grinding. He had a cigarette in his mouth and a beer resting on a pallet behind him. The manager introduced us and continued with the tour. At the end he asked "Well, what do you think? You wanna work in the meat dept?" I said "I get a raise right?" He said "Yep." I learned a TON from that old timer. LOL
