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Supreme Court Rules on Missed Lunch Breaks Class Action
By Matt O’Donnell
“We conclude an employer’s obligation is to relieve its employee of all duty, with the employee thereafter at liberty to use the meal period for whatever purpose he or she desires, but the employer need not ensure that no work is done,” Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar wrote for a unanimous court.
The ruling came amidst a proliferation of lawsuits statewide brought by thousands of workers who allege companies evade state labor law requirements by making it impossible for them to take scheduled breaks. Employers argued that they should not be forced to police their workers as long as breaks are scheduled and made available.
The Supreme Court decision clears companies of liability when their workers voluntarily choose to skip breaks, but also prohibits employers from discouraging or in any way impeding workers from taking their scheduled times to rest and eat. Employers are forbidden from coercing or creating incentives for workers to skip “legally protected breaks.”
Workers’ rights group supporters say the decision will allow employers to get more hours of work from their employees without having to pay them for it.
The case before the court was a class action lawsuit filed against Brinker Restaurant Corp., which owns and operates restaurants throughout California, including Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy. A class of cooks, buspersons, servers, host staff and other hourly employees claimed Brinker’s restaurants failed to give workers their required breaks. The class action lawsuit followed a state investigation into the company probing whether Brinker’s restaurants were complying with state labor laws. Brinker settled with the state for $10 million.
Employers applauded the Supreme Court decision but said the ruling would not end all class action lawsuits and litigation over work breaks. The Supreme Court made a number of comments about the standards for class certification in such cases, including ruling that the question of why a meal period was missed does not render meal period claims uncertifiable.
Updated April 18th, 2012
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