Does my employer have to give me two 15-minute breaks per day? MGL c. 149, § 100 requires a 30 minute lunch period during shifts longer than six hours, but does not require breaks.
Most other employees who work at least 6 hours per day are entitled to at least a 30-minute meal break. Employees who begin working before am and continue working until at least 7 pm are entitled to an additional 20-minute meal break between 5 and 7 pm, for a minimum of at least 50 minutes per day.
In most states, breaks are required by law. The employer has to, by law, enforce that employees take those breaks. If they fail to do so, it opens them up to very expensive lawsuits. I recall a decade or two back, The Gap has a massive settlement in the state of California over employees working through breaks.
Rest breaks must also be spaced out so that they fall in the middle of each work period. This means if employees work 8 hour shifts, they should have one rest break before their meal break and the second rest break afterwards.
Massachusetts General Law chapter 149, section 100, provides that "no person shall be required to work for more than six hours during a calendar day without an interval of at least thirty minutes for a meal." Iron works, glass works, paper mills, letter press establishments, print works, bleaching works, and dyeing ...
In most states, breaks are required by law. The employer has to, by law, enforce that employees take those breaks. If they fail to do so, it opens them up to very expensive lawsuits. I recall a decade or two back, The Gap has a massive settlement in the state of California over employees working through breaks.