California law requires duty-free meal and rest breaks for non-exempt employees (see Overtime Pay regarding who is exempt). Employers that fail to provide these meal periods and rest breaks must pay one hour of additional pay for each daily violation. Leonard Carder attorneys have successfully prosecuted meal and rest period claims in many class action and individual cases.
Meal Periods
Under California law, employers must provide a 30-minute meal period, in which the employee is relieved of all work duties and free from employer control. So, for example, employees generally cannot be required to do any work, carry a pager, respond to a cell phone, or otherwise be “on call” during their meal periods. Employees ordinarily cannot work more than five (5) hours without being provided this break from work. People working more than 10 hours in a day are entitled to at least two (2) meal periods. Because these breaks must be duty-free, employers are not required to pay for the meal period. However, eating at your desk or driving between appointments or deliveries does not usually qualify as a duty-free meal period. Employers that have a written meal period policy that meets these requirements may still be liable for missed meal periods if they pressure employees to work through their meals or if meal periods can be, or are, interrupted.
Rest Periods
California law also requires 10-minute “rest periods” for each 4-hour segment of work. Again, these breaks must be free of all duties and control, meaning that employers cannot keep their workers “on call” during these breaks. Employers must “authorize and permit” such breaks, which generally means they must inform their employees that they have the right to the breaks and relinquish all control. Unlike meal periods, the rest periods count as “hours worked” and must be paid. This means that employees who are not paid by the hour—such as commission salespeople or “piece rate” employees (e.g., package delivery drivers or certain construction workers) must be paid additional wages – usually at least minimum wage – for this rest time.
We Represent Workers With Meal and Rest Period Claims
Leonard Carder has represented a wide variety of workers who have not been giving adequate meal and rest periods, such as retail store employees, flooring installers and other construction workers, truck drivers, dispatchers, medical personnel, and employees who have been misclassified as “exempt.” Leonard Carder can help you evaluate whether believe your employer has being meetings its meal and rest break obligations and whether to take action to recover premium pay for violations of these laws.