When does “lunch hour” officially start for my employees?

Dear Aunty B,

We are a small business and have servicemen working out in the field in customer’s homes and businesses.

When does their lunch hour begin? Immediately they have finished a job and we say “have lunch now”? Or when they have driven to a lunch shop/shopping centre to buy their lunch?

EC,
Sydney

Dear EC,

Oh dear. I can hear your frustration EC. You cheerily announce “down tools”, that it’s lunch time, and then don’t see them for hours as they hop in their cars and head north, hooting and whistling in a long car ride before pulling up at the pub and setting the timer for the one hour lunch!

But I have good news. The lunch break officially starts the second the words “down tools” leave your mouth! If your employee chooses to sit down and have a nice home-made lunch in a nearby garden then he or she can fully enjoy their hour-long lunch break.

If, on the other hand, they decide to drive half way across town to a pub, then they’ll have to head back before the steak is on the plate.

As our adviser lawyer Peter Vitale says, lunch starts when they finish the job to have their break, not after they have had a chance to have a spa and massage before eating!

Good luck,

Your Aunty B.