You Deserve Compensation For Missed Meal And Rest Breaks
Under state and federal law, you are legally entitled to take meal and rest breaks at work. In fact, California law goes beyond federal wage and hour laws and requires employers to allow workers to take meal and rest breaks if they have worked a certain amount of time. Namely, non-exempt hourly employees generally have the right to receive:
- A 30-minute unpaid, uninterrupted and off-duty meal period for every five hours worked
- A 10-minute uninterrupted rest period for every four hours worked
Rosen Marsili Rapp LLP is a Los Angeles employment law firm that handles all manner of wage and hour disputes, including lawsuits involving failure to provide the meal and rest breaks required by law. Our attorneys bring decades of collective experience to the practice of labor and employment law, and our law firm focuses exclusively on representing employees and unions to protect workers’ rights.
Meal And Rest Break Violation Examples
Sometimes it can be difficult to determine whether your meal and rest break rights have been violated. With that caution in mind, the following are some examples of how an employer might violate employees’ rights regarding meal periods and rest breaks:
- An employer who requires employees to combine their rest breaks may be violating wage and hour laws.
- An employer who interrupts a worker’s meal break and requires the employee to perform work may be violating the law.
- An employer who wrongfully demands that employees sign a “meal period waiver” or who forbids employees from leaving the premises during their meal breaks may be violating wage and hour laws. In very limited circumstances, and in very tightly defined types of jobs, employers can require employees to take on-duty meal breaks. Frequently, however, employers attempt to require on-duty meal breaks in circumstances which do not satisfy the law’s requirements.