Questions about breaks and work: Your rights as an employee

Questioner

A few questions I hope you can answer. 1. Can an employer unilaterally adjust the break times while the total number of working hours remains unchanged? 2. Can an employer force an employee to eat only during the lunch break? In other words, can an employer unilaterally forbid an employee to have a 'snack' at the desk? 3. Can an employer unilaterally determine how the employee organises the break? For example, make it mandatory to use the company canteen? Thank you in advance.

Lawyer

An employer and employee are obliged to behave as a good employer and a good employee (Article 7:611 of the Dutch Civil Code). In principle, an agreement is an agreement. If certain break times have been agreed, then this must be adhered to. If the agreement specifies certain times, then it is difficult for the employer to suddenly change this agreement unilaterally. Usually these agreements will not be so clear. The break just happens and suddenly it is changed. The answers to the questions: 1 Yes. The employer can change break times. There is a certain policy and vision and these must be followed by the employee. This answer is different if the break starts at 09:15 and then work has to continue until 18:00. Then the employer's responsibility comes into play. The collective labor agreement (a separate agreement) usually provides guidelines for a break. For example, after four hours of work. Unless an agreement requires otherwise, or unless a rather ridiculous arrangement applies, an employer may require this. 2 Yes. An employer may, as a good employer, demand a certain discipline from employees. However, this also depends on the case. If there is no customer contact and no other reasonable reasons for a 'snack ban', I could imagine that a ban on eating, for example, a Mars bar is not really reasonable. The employer has considerable freedom in this regard. 3 This also depends on what is meant by 'good employment' and 'good employer'. The answer is basically no. A break does not fall on the boss's time. What an employee does during a free quarter of an hour does not matter. Even if the break schedule is specified in a contract, it may still be too restrictive. An example where a restriction is possible is V&D. At V&D, employees walk around during their break with a kind of V&D toiletry bag. The idea is that employees in work clothing may not be seen with products that deviate from the uniform. I don't know whether the employees in uniform are also allowed to eat a sandwich at Hema, but I can imagine not. Outside of these types of customer-focused businesses, I can't imagine an employer requiring a limit on break time that would prevent employees from simply doing what they want. But even in those customer-oriented situations, a restriction of free time goes very far. I could imagine that a judge would not find the requirement of the mandatory toiletry bag reasonable. Conclusion: Yes, yes, no, unless... That's just how the legal world works.