Just a quick reminder about your meal break entitlements.

AMA and AMAX are $26.50 each, can be triggered in each meal break window and can be paid to a maximum of twice per shift ($53). These payments do not ‘buy your meal breaks’, and you are still entitled to one 25 minute break for shifts under 11 hours 25 minutes or two 25 minute breaks for shift of 11 hours 25 or more.

AMA-HEX is a payment for extending your rostered duty (or overtime nominal shift length) by 2 hours or more and is paid in addition to the OT for your extended shift length. The AMA-HEX is 30 minutes of time paid at the relevant composite rate in lieu of being provided another meal break and staying at work for that break. You don’t have to stay at work to receive it.

If you don’t get a meal break you should ask to be paid overtime for that time up to a maximum of 25 minutes for each missed break. There is no need to remain at work to get this time paid as OT.

We’ve had several recent cases of employees not getting their second meal break, particularly on night and/or late shifts, and not getting any OT unless they extend their duty and stay dispatchable to P0s. This is not OK. You don’t have to extend a shift to get compensated for a lack of a meal break.

BSOs are excluded from the P0 meal break provisions but when in an urban environment they are entitled to the same breaks as urban crews. It’s not OK for BSOs to work alone or with a volunteer in town to provide meal break options for urban crews. The intent of the BSO exclusion was to ensure country station cover, not additional resourcing in town.