Meal Penalties

Note: This integration is an extension that is developed outside the normal release schedule to meet specific customer needs. To request one of these extensions, you must submit a Salesforce Service Request to UKG. After the extension is delivered to your tenant, you can edit it accordingly.

Enterprise agreements can define that when a break rule is violated, ​employees are entitled to extra payments​ that are known as meal penalties. Each enterprise agreement defines its own set of meal penalties.​

Example meal penalties: ​​

  • LATE MEAL PENALTY: The employee takes a break after the maximum consecutive hours someone can work without taking a break. You can configure late-penalty amounts for up to 3 breaks.
  • MISSED MEAL PENALTY: The employee works a long shift without taking a meal break.​
  • EARLY MEAL PENALTY: The employee takes a break before having worked the minimum number of hours that is required to take the break.​​
  • SHORT MEAL PENALTY: The employee takes a break that is shorter than the legal length.​

The system monitors worked shifts and validates whether breaks are being taken according to the rules as follows:

  • Rule sets are linked to pay rules.
  • ​When a break rule is violated, the system adds a Penalty paycode to the employee’s timecard.
  • The monetary value of the penalties can be configured in the paycode or by adjustment or percent allocation rules.
  • A comment in the Penalty paycode provides information about which penalty was initiated.
  • Break validation is done for the current and previously unsigned off pay periods. Validation can be configured to work with the elapsed shift length for late meals, or worked length excluding already taken breaks, instead of the fixed interval.

An optional feature excludes meal penalties on days, such as public holidays, when a specifically configured combined paycode appears in the totals add-on of the employee timecard.