Description
In the 2023 edition of his publication, California’s Meal and Rest Period Rules: Proactive Strategies For Compliance, Attorney Richard J. Simmons of Sheppard Mullin provides a detailed analysis of California’s rules and standards for employers. The California Supreme Court has recently issued three landmark decisions involving the state meal and rest period rules. Each of these decisions reached conclusions directly harmful to California employers and businesses and each irreversibly changed the obligations employers must address. Further, each identified risks and liabilities that make the California rules far more costly than the federal rules and those of virtually every other state in the country. The cases are emblematic of the reason employers that can operate their businesses in other states have huge economic incentives to do so.
This new edition surveys the new Supreme Court decisions in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security, Ferra v. Loews and Donohue v. AMN Services as well as other cases. More uniquely, it contains a chapter on proactive strategies employers should evaluate to assist their efforts to construct and administer policies and systems to comply with the law. Among other features, the new edition includes a detailed discussion of “auto-pay systems” designed to aid in compliance and the avoidance of expensive litigation.
Among the numerous subjects covered are the following:
- The California Supreme Court’s Meal And Rest Break Decisions In Naranjo v. Spectrum Security, Ferra v. Loews, Donohue v. AMN Services,
Augustus v. ABM, Brinker Restaurants, And Gerard v. Orange Coast - Solutions To Problems Caused By The Donohue Decision
- California’s Unique Meal And Rest Period Rules
- Penalties & Premiums
- Exceptions And Exemptions From The Meal And Rest Period Rules
- The Importance Of Training Supervisors
- Break Scheduling Practices And Strategies
- Class Action Lawsuits
- Rules Regarding Combining Meal Periods
- State & Federal Rules
- Meal Time Rounding Issues
- Meal & Rest Period Charts
- Proactive Approaches And Solutions
- Sample New-Hire Forms
- Off-The-Clock Work
- Attorney’s Fees
- Pay Stub Rules
- Potential Value Of Using Drop-Down Menus To Certify Compliance
- Sample Forms & Compliance Tips
- Labor Commission Opinions
- Timekeeping Obligations
- New Cases
- Timing Of Meal & Rest Periods
- Waivers
- The Duty To Provide Breaks
- The Consequences Of An Employee’s Choice To Work Through Or Delay Breaks
- IWC Standards
- Frequency Of Meal Periods
- Amount Of Rest Time
- Off-Premises Standards
- Sample Acknowledgement Forms
- Situations Where Premiums Are Not Owed
- Cutting Edge Compliance Strategies
- Avoiding And Defending Lawsuits
- Final Pay Rules
Table Of Contents
SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Of California’s Meal And Rest Period Rules
1.2 Defensive Practices And Proactive Measures
1.3 Scope Of Publication
SECTION 2 CALIFORNIA’S MEAL AND REST PERIOD STANDARDS
2.1 Meal And Rest Period Obligations
2.2 The Statutory Meal Period Zones
2.3 The Duty To “Provide” Meal Periods
2.4 The Five-Hour Standard
2.5 Exceptions To General Meal Period Rules And Waivers
2.6 The Obligation To “Authorize And Permit” Rest Periods
2.7 Union Employees
2.8 The Fair Labor Standards Act
2.9 The Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act
2.10 The Withdrawal Of The DLSE’s Proposed Regulations
SECTION 3 PREMIUMS FOR MEAL AND REST PERIOD VIOLATIONS
3.1 The Amount Of Premiums And Exceptions
3.2 The Obligation To “Provide” Meal Periods
3.3 Situations Where Premiums Should Not Apply
3.4 Payroll Administration, Pay Stub, And Final Pay Issues
3.5 Statute Of Limitations
3.6 The Supreme Court’s Decision In Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions
3.7 The Supreme Court’s Decision In Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court
3.8 Limitation On Attorney’s Fees Recoveries
3.9 The Supreme Court’s Decision In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc.
3.10 The Supreme Court’s Decision In Gerard v. Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center
3.11 Lactation Accommodation Obligations
3.12 The Private Attorneys General Act Of 2004
SECTION 4 RECORD-KEEPING RULES
4.1 The Supreme Court’s Decision In Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC
4.2 Required Records
4.3 Rounding Practices
SECTION 5 PROACTIVE STRATEGIES
5.1 Overview
5.2 Advice Of Counsel
SECTION 6 CLASS CERTIFICATION ISSUES IN MEAL AND REST PERIOD CASES
6.1 General Standards For Class Certification
6.2 Class Certification Raises A Procedural Question
6.3 Application Of Criteria To Meal And Rest Period Claims
6.4 Effect Of Employee’s Failure To Utilize Protocols To Report Missed Meal Or Rest Periods
6.5 Off-The-Clock Work Claims
6.6 Summary Of Class Certification Principles
APPENDIX A LABOR CODE SECTION 226.7 (Meal and Rest Period Premiums)
APPENDIX B LABOR CODE SECTION 512 (Meal Period Rules)
APPENDIX C PERTINENT RECORD-KEEPING RULES IN IWC WAGE ORDERS
APPENDIX D MEAL AND REST PERIOD RULES IN WAGE ORDERS 4 AND 5 (Wage Order 4: Professional, Technical, Clerical, Mechanical and Similar Occupations and Wage Order 5: Public Housekeeping Industry)
APPENDIX E MEAL AND REST PERIOD RULES IN WAGE ORDER 1 (Manufacturing Industry)
APPENDIX F REST PERIOD RULES IN WAGE ORDER 16 (On-Site Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining)
APPENDIX G SAMPLE TIME CARD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR MEAL AND REST PERIODS
APPENDIX H NEW-HIRE FORM (Long Form) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MEAL AND REST PERIOD RULES
APPENDIX I NEW-HIRE FORM (Short Form) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MEAL AND REST PERIOD RULES
APPENDIX J NEW-HIRE FORMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MEAL AND REST PERIOD RULES (HEALTH CARE EMPLOYEES)
APPENDIX K MEAL AND REST PERIODS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (EXISTING EMPLOYEES)
APPENDIX L EMPLOYEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MEAL AND REST PERIOD RULES
APPENDIX M DLSE’S PROPOSED MEAL AND REST PERIOD REGULATIONS (As Revised On July 7, 2005 And Withdrawn On January 13, 2006)
APPENDIX N AB 2509 (Remedies For Employment Law Violations)
APPENDIX O ASSEMBLY MEMBER STEINBERG’S LETTER URGING GOVERNOR TO SIGN AB 2509
APPENDIX P SAMPLE AGREEMENT FOR ON-DUTY MEAL PERIOD
APPENDIX Q FEDERAL REGULATIONS RELATING TO REST AND MEAL PERIODS AND HOURS WORKED
APPENDIX R OPINION LETTERS OF THE DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS ENFORCEMENT
APPENDIX S CASE TABLE
About The Author
Richard J. Simmons is a Partner in the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP in Los Angeles. He represents employers in various employment law matters involving litigation throughout the country and general advice regarding state and federal wage and hour laws, employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, employee discipline and termination, employee benefits, affirmative action, union representation proceedings, and arbitrations. Mr. Simmons received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar and graduated in the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. He received his J.D. from Berkeley Law at the University of California at Berkeley where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Industrial Relations Law Journal, now the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law.
Mr. Simmons argued the only case before the California Supreme Court that produced a victory for employers and business in 2018. He was recently recognized as the Labor and Employment Attorney of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal and was inducted into the Employment Lawyers Hall of Fame. He has lectured nationally on wage and hour, employment discrimination, wrongful termination, and other employment and labor relations matters. He is a member of the National Advisory Board to the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, published by Berkeley Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He was also appointed by the California Industrial Welfare Commission as a member of three Minimum Wage Boards for the State of California.
