Employers in California often offer employees the ability to sign “meal period waivers,” usually at onboarding. These written waivers reflect the employee’s agreement, on a going-forward basis, to waive their first meal...more
4/22/2025
/ Appeals ,
California ,
Contract Terms ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Popular ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Waivers
The Question - The basics of California’s wage statement requirements should be familiar to employers. The consequences for failing to comply with these requirements can be severe....more
Summary -
Where an employer can and does track the exact time in minutes that its employees work each shift, and those records show that employees were not paid for all the time they worked, neutral time rounding is not a...more
12/8/2022
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitrators ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
FEHA ,
FMCSA ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Judgment on the Pleadings ,
Preemption ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Retroactivity ,
Split of Authority ,
Standing ,
State Labor Laws ,
Timekeeping ,
Wage and Hour
The California Court of Appeal issued a decision this week that could spell the end of time rounding in California. In Camp v. Home Depot U.S.A. Inc., No. H049033, 2022 WL 13874360 (Oct. 24, 2022), the court held that, where...more
Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services. Inc., No. S258966, 2022 WL 1613499 (Cal. May 23, 2022)
Summary: Unpaid meal- and rest-break premiums may serve as the basis for waiting-time penalties and inaccurate wage statement...more
On May 23, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc., holding unpaid meal and rest break premiums can give rise to derivative claims for waiting time...more
Welcome to the second edition of “Case in Point,” a series of short videos in which we recap key employment cases from the past quarter and discuss what they mean for employers in California.
In this 6-minute episode, Tyler...more
Reversing a court of appeal decision that had been welcome news for employers, the California Supreme Court held today in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC, S259172, that the term “regular rate of compensation,” used for...more
Donohue v. AMN Services., LLC, No. S253677, 2021 WL 728871 (Cal. Feb. 25, 2021) -
Summary: Employers cannot engage in the practice of rounding time punches in the meal period context.
Time records that show...more
International Brotherhood. of Teamsters, Local 2785 v. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration No. 18-73488, 2021 WL 139728 (9th Cir. Jan. 15, 2021) -
Summary: Federal law preempts California’s meal and rest break...more
2/12/2021
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
FMCSA ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Code ,
Preemption ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trucking Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Sanchez v. Martinez, No. C083268, 2020 WL 5494239 (Cal. Ct. App. Sept. 11, 2020) -
Summary: Piece-rate employees who are provided with unpaid rest breaks are entitled to damages in the amount of the minimum wage for actual...more
10/14/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Judicial Review ,
Piece-Rate Pay ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Betancourt v. OS Rest. Servs., LLC, No. B293625, 2020 WL 2570839 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 30, 2020) -
Summary: A plaintiff is not entitled to recover penalties for waiting time and wage statement violations based on claims of...more
6/9/2020
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equitable Estoppel ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Third-Party Beneficiaries ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
Ridgeway v. Wal-Mart, Inc., 946 F.3d 1066 (9th Cir. 2020) -
The employer must pay minimum wages to employees for time spent on mandated layovers where the employer’s policy imposes constraints on employees’ movements...more
2/12/2020
/ Administrative Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Concurrent Litigation ,
DFEH ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equitable Tolling ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
FEHA ,
Jury Trial ,
Medical Leave ,
Minimum Wage ,
Police ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Preemption ,
Reaffirmation ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Reversal ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Summary Judgment ,
Traveling Employee ,
Wal-Mart ,
Workers' Compensation Claim
On February 6, 2020, in a 2-1 decision, the California Court of Appeal (Fourth District, Division Two) held that an employee's settlement agreement with a staffing agency on a wage-and-hour claim does not necessarily preclude...more
2/11/2020
/ Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Contract Drafting ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hospitals ,
Joint Employers ,
Nurses ,
Privity of Contract ,
Reaffirmation ,
Release Agreements ,
Res Judicata ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Split of Authority ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Subsequent Litigation ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
In Troester v. Starbucks Corporation, the California Supreme Court recently held that the federal de minimis doctrine does not apply to claims for unpaid wages under the California Labor Code. As a follow-up to our recent...more
10/19/2018
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Commuting ,
Corporate Counsel ,
De Minimis Claims ,
De Minimus Doctrine ,
Email ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Off-The-Clock ,
Preemption ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Rounding ,
Starbucks ,
State Labor Laws ,
Text Messages ,
Timekeeping ,
Unions ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour