Meal Breaks

San Diego employees are typically entitled to take an uninterrupted, duty-free meal break after a specified number of hours worked. If these breaks are not offered, or an employer pressures an employee to miss them, it represents a violation of the state’s wage and hour laws.

A qualifying meal break must run a minimum of 30 consecutive and uninterrupted minutes without exception and be provided to an employee prior to the end of the fifth hour of his or her work shift. During a meal break, the employee stops all work duties and his or her activities are no longer at the direction of an employer. The employee is not to be considered “on-call” for the duration of the break.

If an employee is expected to be working for ten hours or more on a single shift, a second meal break must be provided prior to the end of the tenth hour of his or her work shift. This second meal break is just like the first, the employee stops all work duties and his or her activities are no longer at the direction of an employer for 30 consecutive, uninterrupted minutes. The employee is not “on-call” during this time.

Employees who qualify for a meal break must have worked the appropriate amount of hours as per California law. Just because an employee is scheduled to work a certain number of hours in a work shift doesn’t automatically mean that he or she is entitled to a qualifying meal break. The qualifying hours must be worked in order to be eligible for a qualifying meal break

For example, if the employee is scheduled to work an eight hour shift, but has only worked for three of those hours, the employer is not obligated to provide that employee a meal break. Only if the employee does work those eight hours should the appropriate meal breaks be provided.

In the event an employer fails to provide an employee with the appropriate qualifying meal break on time and the employee continues performing the normal job duties during that time, the employer is obligated by law to compensate the employee for hours worked beyond the five hours when that employee was due his or her unpaid meal break. Compensation must be at the standard hourly rate of a normal work day.

A San Diego employee may waive a qualifying meal break that has been earned, as long as he or she is not expected to work more than six hours in a shift. Waiving a meal break must be agreed upon by the employee and employer prior to the start of the break. This can be a verbal agreement, it need not be done in writing.

If an employee’s shift runs more than ten hours but does not exceed twelve, the employee must be provided a second qualifying meal break. The employee may waive this second break but only if agreed upon by both parties AND if the employee did not waive his or her previous meal break earlier in the shift.

Employees may not waive both meal breaks in one ten hour shift. If an employee opts to waive a meal break with the intention of leaving work sooner as result, this would violate the purpose of a meal break under California labor law.

California labor laws expressly prohibit an employer from making any attempts to prevent or discourage an employee from taking his or her qualifying meal break. This includes any efforts on the part of the employer to offer incentives or inducements to the employee or attempt to intimidate the employee to waive or otherwise miss a meal break.

Employers are forbidden by law to interfere with an employee taking his or her qualifying meal break, but they are not obligated by law to guarantee an employee actually takes the meal break to which he or she is due. Employers are only mandated by law to provide meal breaks, an employee may choose whether or not to take it.

Employees in San Diego who hold job positions that keep them from stepping away for a minimum of 30 consecutive, uninterrupted minutes to take a meal break are still due that break. But the circumstances of the meal break are a bit different for these employees.

In situations such as these, the employee is allowed to remain on-duty while taking his or her meal break. This arrangement must be agreed on between employer and employee and the agreement can be terminated by the employee if and when he or she chooses at a future date.

Should the employee miss his or her meal break as a result of the duties of the job, an employer is not bound by California labor code to compensate the employee for that missed break.