Rest & Meal Breaks Lawyer in Long Beach, CA
California Wage and Hour Regulations and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) guarantee that workers are treated fairly, get the remuneration they are entitled to, and that employers do not take advantage of them.
Disputes involving employment are handled by Ricardo Lopez Law. Claims for overtime breaches, such as those resulting from not properly compensating employees for their breaks and meals, are common in these types of employment disputes. Employees all over Long Beach, California have received millions of dollars in monetary and non-monetary rewards as a result of our work.
What Are Some of the Common Mealtime Violations?
It might be difficult to figure out which meal breaks behaviors by your employer are illegitimate, however, here are some frequent scenarios that may be deemed violations:
- Employees are required to “eat and run” due to the nature of their work or company requirements. For example, when going from one customer to another, an employee must eat in the car.
- Requiring an employee to continue working during a break because of job-related requirements. Examples include taking a lunch break while still completing little chores e.g answering the phone, or being available to your customers.
- The time spent on meal breaks (half an hour to an hour) is automatically deducted from the earnings an employee is paid, regardless of whether the person was able to take a break.
Whether or not a worker’s lunch break is sufficient is highly dependent on the circumstances. In order to evaluate if your rights as an employee have been violated, you need to consult an attorney.
Our Long Beach employment law attorneys provide legal representation in the following practice areas:
- Class Actions
- Discrimination
- Retaliation
- Sexual Harassment
- Wage & Hour
- Workplace Harassment
- Wrongful Termination
Californian Breaks for Meals and Rest
Meal Breaks
Beyond the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s pay and hour requirements, California Labor Code 512 mandates that companies give food and rest breaks to employees who have worked a particular number of hours.
Employees are entitled to a 30-minute unpaid meal break whenever they work more than five hours. During this period, the employee is allowed to leave the premises and be freed of all responsibilities. In the event of a breach of this legislation, an employee is entitled to a one-hour premium in addition to the standard hourly wage for the missed break. It is a direct infraction of the law to make the employee skip a meal break each and every day.
It is the employer’s obligation to ensure that the meal break is taken within the first five hours of work. If your shift is longer than ten hours, you’ll need a second break for food.
Rest Breaks
Employees are entitled to a ten-minute paid break for every four hours worked. The break should be offered in the midst of the four-hour period. If possible, after every two hours of work.
For an eight-hour shift, an employee gets two paid 10-minute rest periods and one unpaid 30-minute lunch period. This is the law in California. As with lunch breaks, employees are due one hour of compensation for every day they are refused a rest period.
Are There Any Exceptions to the Rule?
Employees in California are protected by the state’s employment laws when it comes to food and rest breaks. If you work for a company, you have the right to expect your boss to adhere to this rule.
It is however important to distinguish between salary-based employment and a contractual one since only workers are entitled to legally mandated meal breaks. Thus, independent contractors are not covered by the rest and meal breaks law.
Executives, managers, salespeople, and other administrative workers who are paid on a commission basis are also excluded. Basic employees, on the other hand, are those who are required to take mandatory breaks for meals and relaxation.
What Can You Do?
It might be difficult to establish that a rest period was violated because employers are only obligated to make the break accessible, and employees are not required to take it. Courts may have difficulty determining whether an employer effectively explained the availability of break time and if a worker intentionally refused to take advantage of it.
Consider contacting our well-known and well-respected organization for assistance if you feel that you have been deprived of food and/or rest intervals. When it comes to state and federal labor regulations, our staff is well-versed and has a strong track record as litigators. As a firm, we have handled several cases of employer employment law infractions, including class action litigation. It is possible that you are entitled to compensation, and we can assist you in obtaining it.