Posted in Best Practices For California Employers, Class Actions, Employee Handbooks, Meal and Rest Breaks, New Cases, Wage
& Hour Law
In Augustus v.
ABM Security Services, Inc.,
the California Supreme Court issued a ruling on employer’s obligations to
permit employees to take “off-duty” rest periods. The Court’s ruling ends
2016 with a major ruling on issues surrounding rest periods under California
law.
The plaintiffs worked as security guards
for defendant ABM. The employer required to the guards to keep their
pagers and radio phones on at all times, even during rest periods, and to
potentially respond to calls when needed. The guards’ duties
included when a building tenant wished to be escorted to the parking lot, a
building manager had to be notified of a mechanical problem, or the occurrence
of emergency situations.
The trial court “reasoned that a rest
period subject to such control was indistinguishable from the rest of a
workday; in other words, an on-duty or on-call break is no break at all,” and
granted Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. The trial court awarded
approximately $90 million in statutory damages, interest, and penalties.
ABM appealed the trial court’s ruling, and was successful in having
the trial court overturned, but the California Supreme Court granted review of
the case.
The company argued that it provided the
required rest breaks under California law because it only required that the
guards keep their radios and pagers on in case they were needed to respond to a
call. For the last Friday’s Five article of 2016, here are five key
lessons for California employers from the Supreme Court’s decision:
1. Generally, what are
employer’s obligations to provide rest breaks under California law?
Employer’s obligations to provide rest
breaks is found in Labor Code section 226.7, enacted in 2000. As enacted,
subdivision (a) provided: “No employer shall require any employee to work
during any meal or rest period mandated by an applicable order of the
Industrial Welfare Commission.” The Wage Orders generally require that
employers must provide a 10-minute rest period per every four hours worked and
the break should, whenever practicable, fall in the middle of the work period.
(See Wage Order 4, subd. 12(A). The rest period must also be paid, and
the law does not require that employers record when the employee takes the rest
period (unlike an employer’s obligation to record when 30-minute meal breaks
are taken).
2. Does California law
require employers to authorize off-duty rest periods?
Yes. The Supreme Court held that
employers must provide employees with a paid rest break in which the employee
is relieved from all work-related duties and free from employer control. The
Court examined the wage order at issue in the case, Wage Order 4, which
provides, “Every employer shall authorize and permit all employees to take rest
periods…. Authorized rest period time shall be counted, as hours worked for
which there shall be no deduction from wages.”
The Court ruled that:
The most reasonable inference we can draw from the wage order and its context is instead that we should give the term its most common understanding – a reading consistent with requiring that employers authorize off-duty rest periods…. So, ordinarily, a reasonable reader would understand ‘rest period’ to mean an interval of time free from labor, work, or any other employment-related duties.…We accordingly conclude that the construction of Wage Order 4, subdivision 12(A) that best effectuates the order’s purpose and remains true to its provisions is one that obligates employers to permit –– and authorizes employees to take –– off-duty rest periods. That is, during rest periods employers must relieve employees of all duties and relinquish control over how employees spend their time.
3. Can employers
satisfy the obligation to relieve employees from duties and control during rest
periods if the employer requires the employee to remain on call?
No. The Court ruled that “one
cannot square the practice of compelling employees to remain at the ready,
tethered by time and policy to particular locations or communications devices,
with the requirement to relieve employees of all work duties and employer
control during 10-minute rest periods.” The Court made clear that the
employee must be “free from labor, work, or any other employment-related
duties. And employees must not only be relieved of work duties, but also
freed from employer control over how they spend their time.”
4. If employees are
required to carry a pager or phone during a rest break and must monitor the
device during the rest break, is the employee provided a compliant rest
break?
No. If an employee “must fulfill
certain duties [such as] carrying a device or otherwise making arrangements so
the employer can reach the employee during a break, responding when the
employer seeks contact with the employee, and performing other work if the
employer so requests,” the employee does not have the freedom to use the rest
period for their own purpose. The court used examples that employees
should be permitted to take “a brief walk – five minutes out, five minutes
back,” take care of personal matters like “pumping breast milk… or completing a
phone call to arrange child care.”
5. Is there some
flexibility for employers to reschedule rest breaks when needed?
Yes. The Court provided,
“[n]othing in our holding circumscribes an employer’s ability to reasonably
reschedule a rest period when the need arises.” However, the Court failed
to provide any other clarification of what is reasonable in rescheduling a rest
period. The Court did explain, however, that employers have “several
options” when employers find it burdensome to relieve their employees of all
duties during rest periods. As examples of these options, the Court
stated that employers can provide employees with another rest period to replace
the one that was interrupted, or pay the premium pay of one hour at the
employee’s regular rate of pay for missing the rest period.
Looking for more information about
California employers obligations to provide rest and meal periods? See my
prior post on five reminders
about rest breaks here, and the timing of
meal and rest breaks under California law here.
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