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Kelly have a legitimate counter “compensable time”

Toby works a Call Center Representative. He works from 7 am – 4:30 pm, Monday – Friday with 30 minutes for lunch. He also typically takes several “mini-breaks” during the day to smoke. These breaks typically range from 5-10 minutes in length, and he would typically take at least, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Toby prefers to eat his lunch at his desk. However he also tends to answer questions from his manager and even his co-workers throughout his lunch, because he is the senior representative on that team. This occurred for at least a year. Toby recently was let go because due to a downsizing in the department. Toby called his former manager, Kelly and stated that he was owed 30 minutes of pay for the past year because technically he was doing work while eating. Kelly stated that this was not correct, he was on a lunch break and answering questions was completely voluntary. She went on to state that even if he was working during lunch, she never “charged” him for his breaks, so if he wanted to make an issue out of the lunch breaks, she would bring up the “smoke breaks,” and then he might owe the company money. a. Does Toby have a legitimate “compensable time” claim? Why or why not? b. Does Kelly have a legitimate counter “compensable time” claim? Why or why not?

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