Ca labor law question

[John@Outfront]

I have a question: can an employee opt to not take a lunch if “they” don’t want to?

I understand as an employer that I must allow them at least a 30 min uninterrupted meal time before the beginning of the 6 hour, but this is the employee not wanting to take a lunch and be paid 8 hours straight. Is this ok? Do They need to sign something or is it a “ doesn’t matter they have to take one” or I can get in trouble.

I have checked with AI but it just tells me really the employer requirements and not if the employee has the right to forgo lunch and not cause me any harm later down the road

 

[Bobalos]

I'm pretty sure CA says that they must take a 30-minute break before the 6th hour. I can check with our HR folks on Monday if you would like.

Edit... I asked my wife, and she said the same thing as I did above.

 

[AlpineFunco]

I think they have to take the break. If your payroll is outsourced to one of the big services they should have someone that could verify for you.

 

[Dodd]

The employee must show a documented lunch on their time card. I learned this the hard way.

 

[Fireballsocal]

Even if the lunch isn't required to be taken, you gotta cover your ais by having an acknowledgement form signed by the employee and filed. Gone are the days of a handshake and a mans word.

 

[John@Outfront]

The employee must show a documented lunch on their time card. I learned this the hard way.

Tell me more about what happened the hard way

 

[Dodd]

Tell me more about what happened the hard way

I believe it was the workmans comp insurance asked for time card records in a audit. We could only provide some timecards that had documented lunch. I believe fine was $18,000. We then went to electronic timecards that had to be signed by employee before they could submit at the end of their week.

 

[Readster]

Non exempt employee’s Lunch must be taken before 4:59 minutes and has to be 30 minutes. No lunch required if you only work 6 hrs. Then it becomes a lunch penalty where you have to pay an hour For employee missing lunch.

 

[Arch Stanton]

So the easy solution is a time card filled out by the employee and signed
you can either have Him sign in 1/2 hour before his day starts or add a half hour to the end of his day and show a 1/2 hour lunch from 12 to 12:300 that is not taken
It’s not legal but hard to prove and passes an audit with no questions

 

[BaBaBouy]

Keep in mind that today’s employee can become tomorrow’s jilted ex-lover suing you for back pay for all the missed lunches.
You can have all the documentation in the world and have a judgement go against you because a disgruntled former employee claims you wanted him / her to work straight through and they felt like they’d be fired if they didn’t agree to miss lunch / break.

 

[Realbadlarry]

The best way to prevent issues is to make them take a 30 min lunch every day at the same time....I know it sounds stupid, but when you get into stuff you forget what time it is and when you took your lunch...same time every day makes it easy. We've fired people over this.

 

[BaBaBouy]

Give everyone a

The best way to prevent issues is to make them take a 30 min lunch every day at the same time....I know it sounds stupid, but when you get into stuff you forget what time it is and when you took your lunch...same time every day makes it easy. We've fired people over this.

Give everyone a .25% ownership in the company and put them on salary, problem solved.

 

[MWB]

Have the employee fill out their own timecards each week and sign them then keep them in your possession.

Make sure they put down what time they started their shift, what time lunch was and what time they left for the day. Even if they want to skip lunch

This way when SHTF you can counter when he tells the labor board that you owe him you can say, see he said he took lunch and he just admitted in open court that he left early. I think he owes me for hours not worked, not for hours not paid.

 

[J Alper]

Man the world we live, in. when i was in my 20's i use to take my lunch at the machine shop working on the CNC machines to learn how to machine and work for free on Saturdays to learn how to TIG weld,
that kind of Employee is gone. and that kind of Craftsman is gone, this is why a SXS is getting so popular. bunch of plastic premade parts

 

[Kevin]

not an option in cali.

 

[Dockmaster]

There is a new wave of class action lawsuits going around tied to employee's not getting breaks or lunch periods. It's not because they don't receive the break periods, it's because companies don't have documentation to prove they had the required breaks. These started in California but are now expanding to other states. We just paid a ransom to settle one in California. And we are now revamping our policies and timekeeping practices to ensure everyone punches in/out for every required break period. We have thousands of employees so for us this is not an easy thing to solve. This is the world we live in now.

 

[Phil Brown]

There is a new wave of class action lawsuits going around tied to employee's not getting breaks or lunch periods. It's not because they don't receive the break periods, it's because companies don't have documentation to prove they had the required breaks. These started in California but are now expanding to other states. We just paid a ransom to settle one in California. And we are now revamping our policies and timekeeping practices to ensure everyone punches in/out for every required break period. We have thousands of employees so for us this is not an easy thing to solve. This is the world we live in now.

Hit the nail on the head with that one

 

[South Bay]

not an option in cali.

Yeah, this ^ ^ ^. On our payroll system (online), after you have put in your time and submit it to your supervisor, the system asks you whether you were allowed breaks and lunch as well as if you suffered an injury. We also have an app to track our breaks and lunch that we have to use on the daily

 

[Kevin]

There is a new wave of class action lawsuits going around tied to employee's not getting breaks or lunch periods. It's not because they don't receive the break periods, it's because companies don't have documentation to prove they had the required breaks. These started in California but are now expanding to other states. We just paid a ransom to settle one in California. And we are now revamping our policies and timekeeping practices to ensure everyone punches in/out for every required break period. We have thousands of employees so for us this is not an easy thing to solve. This is the world we live in now.

same with my company. the company now writes up our techs in calif as part of the disciplinary action plan for not taking their lunches before the 5 hour mark of their shift. calif labor board dont fuck around with this shit. they have even fired techs for falsifying their time cards as gps data in the company van showed they were not in fact taking their break.

 

[BaBaBouy]

Man the world we live, in. when i was in my 20's i use to take my lunch at the machine shop working on the CNC machines to learn how to machine and work for free on Saturdays to learn how to TIG weld,
that kind of Employee is gone. and that kind of Craftsman is gone, this is why a SXS is getting so popular. bunch of plastic premade parts

I got a job with a fencing company, worked in the yard running a gang saw dog earring cedar fence slats.
I asked the owner if I could be paid by the pallet instead of hourly ( piece work). We settled on a price per pallet and I went to work. I’d hop the fence in the morning before anyone got there and get started, worked through lunches and volunteered to close up the yard when I’d leave.
The owner called me in to pick up my first check under the new agreement, he told me I was going back to hourly because “ I can’t have you making more money than my foreman who has been with me for 20 years.”
I knew right then I had to be self employed at some point.