"My company just told us about a new policy where any meeting or training that is held over the lunch hour where food will be provided is unpaid. Some of these lunch meetings are optional trainings, but some are mandatory department meetings. Is it legal for the company to deny pay for time spent at these meetings just because lunch is provided?"
Answer: It is not legal, and the time employees spend during those lunch meetings must be paid.
This scenario implicates two different provisions of the FLSA.
According to the FLSA, bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) are not work time and are not compensable. If, however, an employee is required to perform any duties during their lunch break, the meal period becomes work time that must be compensated. If attendance at a meeting is mandatory, the time spent during the meeting is compensable work time; the fact that the meeting occurs during the lunch hour is irrelevant to this determination.
Further, time spent at the optional training lunches is also likely compensable work time. Under the FLSA, the compensability of training time depends on four factors:
1. Is attendance outside regular working hours?
2. Is attendance truly voluntary?
3. Is the training indirectly related or unrelated to the employee's job?
4. Is any productive work performed while attending?
You must be able to answer "yes" to all four of these questions to consider an employee's attendance uncompensated non-working time. The scenario described above likely fails on points 1 and 3, meaning that it is mandatory to pay to the employees for time spent in the optional training.
Now you know. Pay your non-exempt employees accordingly.