California Supreme Court Holds That Employers Are Not Required to Police Employee Meal Breaks

The California Supreme Court issued an opinion recently in Brinker v. Superior Court, that has a huge impact on California employers. At issue was the question of whether or not employers are required to police employees’ actions to ensure that the employees are not working during these breaks. Employees who file wage and hour claims have long alleged that employers were liable to the employee for compensation when the employer provided time for the meal breaks but failed to ensure that the employee refrained from performing any work related tasks during mandatory meal breaks. Employers in response have long argued that they have met their obligations under the Labor Code by providing the meal breaks and that they bear no liability if an employee violates the intent of the break and performs work related tasks during the meal break period.

Per the California Labor Code section 512, an employee is entitled to a 30 minute meal break after 5 hours of work. Interpreting the Labor Code, along with the Wage Orders and Opinion Letters issued that attempt to further explain this law, the Court held that the condition precedent that triggers an employer’s duty to provide a meal break is employment of the person for at least 5 hours. The resulting entitlement by the employee is a meal period of at least 30 minutes. The Court could find no statutory or public policy basis for concluding that an employer is obligated to police employee meal breaks to ensure that the employee is not working during that time. On the contrary, the Court held that it would be inconsistent with the clear plain meaning of the statute to interpret the law to mean that the employer must exert control over the employee during the meal break to confirm that no work is being done. Restated, the imposition of a policing requirement would in effect require the employer to exert control over the employee during the meal break which would run counter to the public policy behind the very purpose of the meal period….relinquishment of employer control during the meal break period.

If you have questions about how this recent ruling by the California Supreme Court could impact your company’s operations, then contact Ronnie Gipson at 415.692.6520 or by email at Gipson@higagipsonllp.com.