One of the things that surprises us most is when new employees start with us is that they are a little shocked that we insist that they take a 30 minute lunch break. 

More often than not they have never had an employer insist on this before. 

The truth is that under the General Retail Industry Award, you are entitled to a meal break of at least 30 minutes but no more than 60 minutes if you work over 5 hours in a shift. 

But the law, or the disregard of it, is not what really surprises us about lunch breaks no being the status quo in our industry. It’s just simply that florists are on their feet all day, physically working hard, and just bloody well deserve one! How an employer can have so little disregard for an employee’s wellbeing to not let them have a formal lunch break is just beyond us.

But that is exactly why we’re writing posts such as these. Most florists simply don’t know their rights or they're not part of the general conversation around how we can grow as an industry as a whole.

We’re happy to field any questions you have on the topic to help others better understand their rights so we can all ultimately do better work and raise the standard of floral design in Australia.

Image: Marcelo Colmenero