Am i entitled to a paid 30 minute break?
Short answer
In Quebec, an unpaid 30-minute meal period is mandatory after 5 consecutive hours of work. It must be paid if the employee is not allowed to leave their work station (s. 79 of the Act respecting labour standards).
In detail
The rule is about the meal period, not about coffee breaks. The Act does not require an employer to grant coffee breaks. However, if the employer does grant them, that time is deemed to be working time and must be paid (s. 57).
After 10 consecutive hours of work, a second 30-minute meal period is owed, on the same conditions.
The decisive point for pay is being free to leave your work station. Someone who has to stay at the cash register, answer the phone, watch the floor or remain reachable during their meal has not been released: the half hour then becomes paid time, and it counts toward the weekly total.
What to document
Your arrival and departure times, the actual time and length of each break, whether you were able to leave your work station, and the instructions you were given about it. An interrupted meal break is written down on the spot: it is the repetition, day after day, that becomes provable.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
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Official sources
Related questions
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.