Is the meal break part of working time and is it paid?

Quick answer

The meal break is NOT included in working time unless the collective agreement or internal rules say so.
For a daily schedule longer than 6 hours, a meal break is granted.
If the break is not part of working time, it is not paid as hours worked.
Between two working days, the daily rest is at least 12 consecutive hours.
The break's duration and conditions are set by the collective agreement or internal rules.

Art. 134 Labour Code: for schedules over 6 hours, employees are entitled to a meal break and other breaks.
Breaks count as working time only if the collective agreement or internal rules provide so.
Art. 135 Labour Code: daily rest between two working days is at least 12 consecutive hours.
For shift work, daily rest may be at least 8 hours between shifts.
For workers under 18, the meal break is at least 30 minutes for schedules over 4.5 hours.

Example: on an 8-hour schedule, if the 30-minute break is not set as working time, the paid time is 8 hours on top of the break.
Example: internal rules may state that the 30-minute meal break is included and paid.
Example: an employee finishing at 22:00 cannot be scheduled before 10:00 the next day (12-hour rest).
Example: a 17-year-old on a 6-hour schedule gets a meal break of at least 30 minutes.

Automatically treating the meal break as paid time, with no provision in the agreement or rules.
Not granting a meal break for a daily schedule over 6 hours.
Scheduling the employee without respecting the minimum 12-hour daily rest.
Having no written break rule in the company's internal regulations.

4softhr configures the meal break as included or excluded from working time per the company's rules.
It correctly computes paid hours, subtracting the break or not, per the set rule.
It automatically checks the minimum 12-hour daily rest between shifts and alerts on breaches.
It applies special break rules for under-18 workers in the time-tracking schemes.
It documents break rules in the time-tracking records in the 4b2b ecosystem, ready for inspection.