Am I in the wrong place?

What is the name of your state? GA

Hello quick question!
I may be in the wrong place to talk about this and I apologize if I am.
I work in GA for a technical support helpdesk staffed with about 10 people to assist with live television broadcasts. During the course of the week we may have a lot of shows that are during lunch time. Our schedule is a rotating one where everyone goes to lunch at different times to accomadate stafffing. When we have an influx of calls they order lunch for us and demand that we stay in and answer the phones. We do not get short breaks or meal periods. We actually have to eat while answering the phones. The environment is very stressful and demands short breaks to keep everyone calm but this does not happen. Could someone please advise me on anything that could help with this situation or advise me if the employer is legally safe in doing this to us?

You're in the right place but I'm not familiar with GA State reg's. Only a very, very few States mandate breaks be provided for those 18+ years of age so the odds are great that your employer isn't breaking any laws. cbg, a regular poster here, can undoubtedly fill us in on anything GA may require along those lines and will likely be along shortly to respond.

cbg reporting in.

Neither Federal law nor Georgia law requires that an employer offer any kind of break to employees, so the company is not breaking any laws in what they are doing. While I agree that short breaks would be beneficial, in your state they are quite safe legally.

Only a few minutes wait. Pretty good. I see the Bat Signal is working just fine.

Thank you very much

Thank you both very much in your quick reply!!!!

One more question if you don't mind :

I was looking on the US Department of Labor website and found under 29 CFR 785.19 that employees must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals. Bona fide meal periods.

Does this apply to OSHA regulations and who does OSHA regulations apply to. Are they just for factory, construction workers, etc... Or do they apply to every one. I am curious just curious about this. Thanks alot in advance....

You all are the GREATEST.

This has nothing to do with OSHA. OSHA gets involved with safety regulations. Meal breaks do not fall under their jurisdiction.

The Federal Department of Labor has set down regulations to be used IF meal breaks are offered, one of which is that it cannot be considered a meal break unless the employee is completely relieved of duty. However, it does NOT require that meal breaks be offered. It is still up to the employer whether or not to offer them. IF they do, then they must follow the Federal regulations.

Ditto to what cbg just said. (We're like a tag team here, eh?)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's prevue is safety in the workplace. Now if a mandate that you eat lunch at your work station exposed your food (and thus you) to ingesting something toxic, then they'd be the people to contact. But with the exception of some very specific hazardous occupations, they'd have nothing to do with whether you must be allowed any break time.