General

An employee must fulfill his or her daily basic work requirement (e.g., 8 hours).  For many reasons, an employee in this situation may want to bring a lunch to work.  If the employee’s agency allows only 30 minutes for lunch, and he or she chooses to take 1.5 hours for lunch, the employee may request annual leave, other paid time off, or leave without pay to account for the additional hour.
A lunch or other meal period is an agency approved period of time in a nonpay or nonwork status.  A lunch or other meal period is not an entitlement.