(Additional wages due even if clock says otherwise)
Q: I AM a full-time hourly technician who work in the field. While we were told that we have a 30-minute unpaid lunch break every day, we usually cannot take breaks due to the heavy workload. However, the employer still deducts 30 minutes from our work hours. Is this legal?
A: No. If you did not take your lunch break, you should not be deducted for 30 minutes. In fact, not only should there be no deduction, your employer should also pay you an additional one hour at your regular hourly rate for being unable to take an uninterrupted 30-minute meal period.
Under California law, a 30-minute uninterrupted meal period must be provided for each employee for every 5 hours of work. Merely offering or allowing a meal break is not enough. The employer must affirmatively perform the following obligations:
Relieve the employee of all duty for an uninterrupted period of 30 minutes
Afford employees the freedom to come and go as they please during their break. Employees must be free to leave the workplace during breaks.
Relinquish control over the employees’ activities during the break.
Employees should not be impeded or discouraged from taking their breaks
In light of these rules, the employer fails in its legal duty to provide meal breaks if:
1. Employees were not relieved of ALL duties but were required attend to work-related issues while on breaks.
2. Employees are required to remain on the work premises where their breaks can be interrupted.
3. No specific lunch break time is scheduled and employees are merely told to take a break when not busy, even though work is continuous and always busy.
Companies who ignore break time rules eventually learn the hard way that they cannot sacrifice the employees’ welfare for the company’s bottom line. Recently, a group of service technicians from Canon Business Solutions, Inc. sued their employer for failure to provide meal breaks but deducting their work hours any way.
The employees alleged that Canon automatically deducted 45 minutes for meal periods even though employees did not take lunch or took less than 45 minutes for lunch. The time-keeping system automatically deducted the times for those breaks from the employees’ total hours of work. Canon scheduled its work assignments and the instructions it gave its workers did not provide the workers to take meal breaks.
Rather then proceed to trial, the case was settled. Last month, a California federal judge granted preliminary approval for a $4.4 million settlement between Canon Business Solutions Inc. and the group of service technicians.
Employers whose business necessities prevent them from giving lunch breaks cannot simply ignore the lunch break law as if it does not exist. Lawsuits such as the Canon case continue to serve as an important lesson to employers that the needs of the business do not justify violations of lunch break laws.
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The Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. welcomes inquiries about this topic. All inquiries are confidential and at no-cost. Atty. Sayas’ Law Office is located at 500 N. Brand Blvd. Suite 980, Glendale, CA 91203. You can contact the office at (818) 291-0088 or visit www.joesayaslaw.com.
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C. Joe Sayas, Jr., Esq. is trial attorney who has obtained several million dollar recoveries for his clients against employers and insurance companies. He has been selected as a Super Lawyer by the Los Angeles Magazine, featured in the cover of Los Angeles Daily Journal’s Verdicts and Settlements, and is a member of the Million Dollar-Advocates Forum.