House Bill (HB) 500, which may receive a vote in the full House soon, would take away Kentucky workers’ rights to lunch and rest breaks at work and would eliminate pay protections, including for time spent traveling to and from a job site during work hours. It is an assault on longstanding basic rights and dignities on the job that will harm practically all Kentucky workers. Specifically, HB 500:
Repeals the requirement that employers provide a lunch break. Since a state law passed in 1974, businesses must provide a lunch break every three to five hours, but that right would be eliminated under HB 500. Instead, HB 500 says only that a worker required to keep working without a lunch break can’t be denied pay if they juggle eating something while on the job. However, if the employer does provide a lunch break and they discover a worker eating at another time while on the clock, they will not be required to pay them for that time — even a worker who needs a snack for medical reasons.
Repeals the requirement that employers provide a rest break. Currently, employers must provide at least a 10-minute rest break for each four hours of work in addition to a scheduled lunch period. HB 500 takes away that right, which was established in 1958.
Repeals the requirement that employees who work seven days in a row receive time-and-a-half overtime pay. Current law, which has been in place since 1942, incentivizes employers to give workers a rest day to allow the opportunity for them to recover and spend time with their families, but that incentive would go away. It also would mean no access to overtime for workers not subject to the regular overtime law, including agricultural, retail, restaurant and hotel and motel workers.
Eliminates employer liability for failure to provide proper pay for work time spent traveling between jobs and for time spent on certain activities associated with starting and wrapping up a job. Employers could not be punished for failing to provide minimum wages or overtime pay for travel to and from a work site and for activities that are in preparation for, or part of the wind-down from, a work activity — such as donning and doffing personal protective equipment in a hazardous work environment.
For example, a landscaping employee, roofer or HVAC installer traveling between job locations would not have to be paid minimum wage for that travel time under this change. Similarly, a worker in a chemical factory would not have to be paid minimum wage when they are putting on or off their safety equipment, nor would a bus driver doing safety checks before picking up kids from school or a lathe operator cleaning and greasing his or her machine.
Decreases the statute of limitations for labor violations from five years to three years so workers have less time to report issues. The bill also bans punitive damages for employees who experience emotional distress, humiliation or embarrassment when being wrongly discharged from their job.
Collectively, these provisions weaken multiple common sense protections for safe working conditions and fair pay that have been a part of Kentucky’s safeguards for more than half a century. HB 500 will make work more dangerous by depriving workers of food and rest, incentivizing them to travel too quickly to get to their job site, and discouraging them from taking proper precautions at the start of shifts. And it will take pay away from workers when they are moving between job locations, working excessive weeks, and engaging in necessary tasks at the beginning and end of the work day.
