The Indian Business Owner TIBO Magazine - Volume 003 | Page 21

GIVE ME
A BREAK!
CALIFORNIA COURT RULING
When is a rest period not a rest period? When you’re
kept working or on-call the whole time, the California
Supreme Court ruled. In a case decided just a
couple weeks ago, the court ruled that California law
prohibits rest periods and breaks where an employee
remains on-duty or on-call, such as when employees
are required to respond to calls or perform basic tasks,
even when on a required break. For a break or rest
period to meet the requirements of California law, the
court concluded, employees must be truly free from
work duties.
The California Labor Code section 266.7 dictates
that “No employer shall require any employee to
work during any meal or rest period mandated
by an applicable order of the Industrial Welfare
Commission.” IWC Wage Order 4 further requires
that employers provide 10-minute breaks for every
four hours worked. Failure to comply with the break
requirement obliges employers to provide one hour of
pay for every day without a provided rest period. The
order also requires 30-minute meal breaks where the
employee is relieved of all duties, unless an on-duty
meal break is agreed to in writing.
Since the meal break provision required employees
to be relieved from all duties while the 10-minute
rest provision did not, the Court of Appeal found
that no such full relief from work was required. The
California Supreme Court disagreed. “The ordinary
meaning of rest conveys, in this context, the opposite
of work,” Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino
Cuéllar wrote for the court. That is, a time “free from
labor, work, or any other employment-related duties.”
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