HUGE VICTORY FOR EMPLOYERS

Hello everyone!

Well, everyone waiting for news on the status of meal and rest breaks in California - that wait has ended (at least for now.) The California Court of Appeal in the Brinker decision just held:

"With these principles in mind, we conclude the class certification order is erroneous and must be vacated because the court failed to properly consider the elements of plaintiffs' claims in determining if they were susceptible to class treatment. Specifically, we conclude that (1) while employers cannot impede, discourage or dissuade employees from taking rest periods, they need only provide, not ensure, rest periods are taken; (2) employers need only authorize and permit rest periods every four hours or major fraction thereof and they need not, where impracticable, be in the middle of each work period; (3) employers are not required to provide a meal period for every five consecutive hours worked; (4) while employers cannot impede, discourage or dissuade employees from taking meal periods, they need only provide them and not ensure they are taken; and (5) while employers cannot coerce, require or compel employees to work off the clock, they can only be held liable for employees working off the clock if they knew or should have known they were doing so. We further conclude that because the rest and meal breaks need only be "made available" and not "ensured," individual issues predominate and, based upon the evidence presented to the trial court, they are not amenable to class treatment. Finally, we conclude the off-the-clock claims are also not amenable to class treatment as individual issues predominate on the issue of whether Brinker forced employees to work off the clock, whether Brinker changed time records, and whether Brinker knew or should have known employees were working off the clock. Accordingly, we grant the petition and order the superior court to vacate its order granting class certification and enter a new order denying certification of plaintiffs' proposed class."

This is HUGE!!! According to this decision, employers only need to provide employees with the opportunity to take meal breaks - they do not need to ACTUALLY ENSURE THEY ARE TAKEN.

Stay tuned for an upcoming podcast on this at www.employerhelpcast.blip.tv.

Or, if you would like to discuss this decision, and the impact it could have on your operations (or any lawsuit or claim that is pending or possibly pending), feel free to give me, Helene Wasserman, a call, at 310-772-7288.

Take care

Helene