MEAL PERIODS AND REST BREAKS 4.1 Except when required for urgent or emergency work and except as provided in 4.2 no employee shall be required to work for more than five hours continuously without being allowed a meal break of not less than half an hour. 4.2 An employee unable to be relieved from work for a meal break shall be allowed to have a meal on duty and this period shall be regarded as working time. 4.3 Except where provided for in 4.2 an employee unable to take a meal after five hours’ duty shall be paid at overtime rates from the expiry of five hours until the time when a meal can be taken. 4.4 During the meal break or rest breaks prescribed above, free tea, coffee, milk and sugar shall be supplied by the employer. Where it is impractical to supply tea, coffee, milk and sugar free of charge, an allowance of $1.48 per week in lieu shall be paid. This allowance shall continue during all periods of leave except leave without pay. 4.5 Rest breaks of 10 minutes each for morning tea, afternoon tea or supper, where these occur during duty, shall be allowed as time worked.
Meal Periods (a) Meal periods shall be scheduled as close as possible to the middle of the scheduled hours of work. The length of the meal period shall be agreed to at the local level and shall be not less than 30 minutes nor more than 60 minutes. (b) An employee shall be entitled to take their meal period away from the workstation. Where this cannot be done, the meal period shall be considered as time worked.