California Restaurant Workers Get A Needed Boost

California Restaurant Workers Get A Needed Boost

Here are five new changes in the Golden State effective this year that will impact the restaurant workplace. California requires that hourly employees get a 30-minute unpaid meal break after no more than 5 hours of work, and a second 30-minute unpaid meal break working more than 10 hours in a day. On February 25, 2021, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC, holding that employers cannot round meal break clock in/outs in time records (meaning that breaks cannot be cut short, even for a minute). The Donohue opinion also made clear that employee time records showing a late, short, interrupted, and/or missed meal break amounts to a rebuttable presumption of a violation at the summary judgment stage. In non-legal terms, this means that restaurants will have to prove compliance if their records hint otherwise. Impact On Restaurant Workers: The requirement about time records may be especially problematic for restaurants where tipped employees often want to skip breaks to keep getting tips. Impact On Restaurant Workers: Remote workplaces face COVID-19 exposure far less frequently than restaurants fighting to remain open. California Government Code § 12945. 2(b)(3) says that California employers with 5 or more