Our earlier post about the U.S. Labor Department's position on unauthorized extensions of rest breaks has generated additional comments and questions. We have responded to one comment at length beneath the post itself.

Another reader took the Labor Department's interpretation to mean that, if an employee impermissibly extends his or her rest break, then the whole rest break could be treated as non-compensable time under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In that reader's view, for example, if an employee stretches a ten-minute rest break to 20 minutes, then the full 20-minute period could be excluded from worktime, rather than only the additional ten minutes.