Extract to table

However, where an employer elects to provide a meal break and wishes to exclude that time from the employee's compensable working hours, the employer must satisfy specific regulatory requirements established by the Department of Labor ("DOL") in 29 C

To qualify as a bona fide meal period, the regulation establishes that the employee must be "completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals

" The regulation further clarifies that the bona fide meal period is "not limited to the mere ingesting of food" — in other words, the employee need not actually eat during the period, but must be genuinely free from work obligations

It provides that if the employee "is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, during the meal period," the period does not qualify as a bona fide meal period and the time must be treated as compensable work time

Employees must be free to leave their work stations and use the meal period for their own purposes

Employees on a bona fide meal break must be free to use the time as they see fit — whether to eat, run personal errands, make personal phone calls, or simply rest