Labor & Employment Law Blog

The good news was short lived, however. Just two months later, on October 22, 2008, the California Supreme Court granted the plaintiff's petition for review of the Court of Appeal's decision in Brinker. As a consequence, employers defending lawsuits alleging violation of meal period requirements could no longer cite Brinker as authority that an employer is not required to ensure that employees take all required meal periods made available to them, and plaintiffs could once again contend an employer has a duty to ensure all required meal periods are taken and to document that all required meal periods are taken.

After the California Supreme Court granted review of Brinker, the Court of Appeal issued seven additional decisions holding an employer is required to make required meal periods available but is not required to ensure that employees take all required meal periods made available to them. See Brinkley v. Public Storage, Faulkinbury v. Boyd & Associates, Brookler v. Radio Shack Corp., Hernandez v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Tien v. Tenet Healthcare, Lamps Plus Overtime Cases, and Santos v. Vitas Healthcare.  However, the California Supreme Court promptly granted review of each of those seven decisions, too, and, like Brinker, those seven decisions can no longer be cited as authority that an employer is not required to ensure that employees take all required meal periods made available to them.  

This state of affairs left employers, employees, and courts tasked with resolving disputes over whether an employer has or has not complied with its obligations to "provide" required meal periods in the dark about what the law requires and has complicated the handling of the innumerable class action wage and hour lawsuits brought against California employers. 

On November 8, 2011, over three years after granting review, the California Supreme Court conducted the long awaited oral argument.  

In an unusual turn of events, on December 2, 2011, the court granted the request of the California Employment Law Council to submit an additional post-hearing amicus curiae or "friend of the court" brief addressing the issue of "rolling" meal breaks, which was raised during the November 8, 2011 oral argument. The issue concerns when during the workday employers must "provide" the first meal period and whether, and if so, when during the workday employers must "provide" a second meal period. It has been widely believed that an employer is required to "provide" a second meal period only when a non-exempt employee works more than 10 hours in a workday and only after the tenth hour of work.  However, on account of language in the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders stating "[n]o employer shall employ any person for a work period of more than five (5) hours without a meal period of not less than 30 minutes," the court is now considering whether an employee who takes a meal period relatively early in his or her workday is entitled to a second meal period if an employee works 5 hours after taking an "early" meal period, even if the employee's workday does not exceed 10 hours. 

On December 14, 2011, the California Supreme Court issued an order permitting the parties to the case to file no later than January 13, 2012, answers to the  additional post-hearing amicus curiae brief submitted by the California Employment Law Council and permitting replies to any such answers to be filed no later than January 13, 2012.  In that same order, the California Supreme Court vacating "submission of the cause" and stating the case will be deemed resubmitted on January 13, 2012. By that order, the court effectively extended the 90 day deadline for the court to issue its decision in the case from February 6, 2011 (i.e., 90 days after the close of the November 8, 2011 oral argument) to April 11, 2012.  

On January 13, 2012, the the California Supreme Court issued an order indicating the matter was submitted, meaning that a decision would issue within 90 days (i.e., on or before April 11, 2012).

To date, the Court has not taken any action suggesting a further delay of the decision. It therefore appears the Court will issue its decision on April 11, 2012, or perhaps sooner.

By way of a recap, we expect the Court's decision will address at least two major issues: (1) whether an employer's obligation to "provide" required meal periods means to make required meal periods available to eligible employees (i.e., non-exempt employees) or to ensure that eligible employees take all required meal periods, and (2) whether "rolling" meal periods are required such that an employer that requires or permits an employee to take a meal period relatively early in the workday is required to "provide" a second meal period within 5 hours of the conclusion of the employee's first meal period even if the employee does not work more than 10 hours in a workday.

Like many Californians, we are eagerly awaiting the Court's decision, and we will report on the decision very likely the day it is issued. Stay tuned.