Lunch Break and Tea/Coffee Break Policy

1. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to establish clear guidelines for lunch and tea/coffee breaks while maintaining employee well-being, productivity, discipline, and uninterrupted business and client support.

Breaks are provided to employees to support health and productivity; however, employees are expected to manage breaks responsibly and ensure that work, meetings, client commitments, and deliverables are not affected.

2. Applicability

This policy applies to all employees, trainees, interns, consultants, and other personnel working from the company's office, unless specifically governed by a separate employment or engagement arrangement.

3. Working Hours

Employees are required to follow the working hours communicated by the company.

The applicable statutory requirements relating to working hours and rest intervals shall be followed. For establishments covered by the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017, an adult worker should not be required to work continuously for more than five hours without a break of at least 15 to 30 minutes.

4. Lunch Break

Employees will generally be provided a lunch break of up to 40 minutes during the working day.

  • The lunch break should normally be taken within the time window communicated by the management.

  • Employees should coordinate lunch breaks within their team to ensure adequate business coverage.

  • Employees handling critical client/project responsibilities must ensure that another team member is available where required.

  • Employees must return to work immediately after the permitted lunch break.

  • Lunch breaks should not be unnecessarily extended.

  • Employees are not permitted to combine the lunch break with tea/coffee breaks to create an extended absence from work.

Client and Meeting Responsibility

Employees must ensure that lunch breaks do not result in:

  • Missing scheduled client calls;

  • Missing internal meetings;

  • Delayed response to clients or management;

  • Delay in critical project activities; or

  • Failure to meet assigned responsibilities.

Where a client call or critical meeting overlaps with the normal lunch period, the employee may be required to adjust the lunch break based on business requirements.

5. Tea/Coffee Break

The company will provide employees with two tea/coffee servings per working day at the company's cost.

Employee Entitlement

Each employee is entitled to:

  • Two tea/coffee servings per working day

  • The facility may include tea or coffee as made available by the company.

  • The two servings may generally be taken as:

    • One during the first half of the working day; and

    • One during the second half of the working day.

The exact timing may be adjusted depending on work schedules and business requirements.

6. Duration of Tea/Coffee Break

Tea/coffee breaks are intended to be short refreshment breaks.

Employees should normally limit each tea/coffee break to approximately 10–15 minutes, including time required to obtain and consume the beverage.

Tea/coffee breaks should not be used for:

  • Extended personal discussions;

  • Personal errands;

  • Extended mobile phone usage;

  • Leaving the office premises without approval;

  • Combining multiple breaks into one extended break; or

  • Reducing productive working hours.

7. Additional Tea/Coffee

The company-sponsored entitlement is limited to two tea/coffee servings per employee per working day.

Any additional tea/coffee, snacks, or other refreshments will be at the employee's own cost unless specifically provided by the company.

8. Breaks During Meetings and Client Calls

Employees must give priority to business and client commitments.

Employees should not:

  • Miss a client call because of a tea/coffee break;

  • Remain unavailable during a scheduled meeting;

  • Delay joining a meeting after a break; or

  • Ignore calls/messages from clients or reporting managers during working hours.

If a client call or important meeting is scheduled during a break, the employee must attend the business requirement and take the break later, wherever reasonably possible.

9. Employees Working From Home

Employees working from home are also expected to follow the same principles of working hours, lunch breaks, availability, and productivity.

WFH does not provide additional or extended break entitlement.

Employees must remain available for:

  • Client calls;

  • Internal meetings;

  • Team discussions;

  • Urgent work requirements; and

  • Communication from the reporting manager.

10. Break Discipline

Employees are expected to maintain professional discipline while availing breaks.

Repeatedly exceeding the permitted break duration or taking excessive/unapproved breaks may be considered an attendance and performance issue.

Where repeated violations are observed, management may:

  • Counsel the employee;

  • Issue a formal warning;

  • Monitor attendance and break compliance; and

  • Consider the matter as part of the employee's performance evaluation.

11. Business Requirements

Break timings may be modified by the Reporting Manager/Project Manager depending on:

  • Client requirements;

  • Meetings;

  • Project deadlines;

  • Production/development requirements;

  • Training sessions;

  • Critical incidents; or

  • Other business requirements.

The company will endeavour to provide reasonable opportunities for employees to take required rest and meal breaks while maintaining business continuity.

12. General Principle

Employees are expected to follow the principle:

"Take your break, refresh yourself, and return to work on time."

Breaks are provided for employee well-being and should not be misused to reduce productive working hours.

Group Breaks Are Not Permitted

Group tea/coffee breaks are strictly prohibited. Employees must not leave their workstations or office premises as a group at the same time for tea, coffee, or any other break. Breaks must be staggered to ensure continuous team availability, uninterrupted client support, and business operations.

The objective of this policy is to maintain a healthy balance between employee welfare, productivity, professional discipline, and uninterrupted client service.