HR Management & Compliance

Legislature Seeks to Clarify Meal and Rest Period Requirements, Penalties






A new measure, S.B.
1192, has been introduced in the California Senate that would reverse
controversial case law holding that payments to employees for missed breaks are
wages and not penalties, and would offer employer-friendly provisions on what
it means to “provide” meal periods and when they must commence. Here’s an
overview.

 


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Section 226.7 Amendments

The law would amend
California Labor Code Section 226.7, which currently states that an employer
must pay one additional hour of pay to an employee for a missed break (besides
the wages owed for the time worked). The amended version would specify that the
hour’s pay is a penalty and not a wage, thus overturning the California Supreme
Court’s decision in
Murphy v. Kenneth Cole (see CWHA May 2007). As a result, employees would have just one year to file
a lawsuit to recover this penalty—rather than the three years allowed for
recovering wages.

 

The amendments would
also, for the first time, define what it means to “provide” a meal or rest break
for purposes of Section 226.7 penalties.  Under the measure, “provide” means making the
break “available to the employee without interfering with its use.” Thus, employers
would not be required to
ensure that employees take
breaks in order to avoid penalties.

 

Section 512 Amendments

The bill would also
amend Labor Code Section 512, adding new language stating that required meal periods
may commence “at any time before the sixth hour of work.” Note that the current
Section 512 language says nothing about this issue, and the law has been
unclear as to whether the meal period had to begin (and perhaps even conclude)
before the fifth hour of work ended, or could begin at the sixth hour.

 

We’ll keep you posted on the status of this bill
and others of interest to California
employers. In the meantime, you can look up the legislation online at www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html

 

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