Hi everybody! It's Andy. I hope you're having a great day. In the video that
you're about to see, I'm going to go over some aspects of California employment
law with you. Employment law in California can, on occasion I think, be a
bit confusing, largely because there are a lot of exceptions that might apply in
your case versus somebody else's. And depending on the exceptions and which
ones apply and so on, the law in your case might be different than the law in
someone else's case. So some common exceptions relate to things like, you
know, do you have a union, you know, where you work versus not, do you work for the
government versus a private sector employer, what kind of industry do you
work in, like do you work in manufacturing, do you work in farming, you
know, the rules for all that stuff could be different. So because of all of that
potential variation, it is very difficult to quote a universal rule that applies
to everybody. There are some universal rules that do apply to everybody, but
there's a lot of variation potentially as well. So i say all this stuff so that
you know that this video that you're about to see, it is possible, depending on
your situation, that you might not be able to follow it literally. So
unfortunately, the only way to really know what applies in your case, like what
rules, what laws, etc is to go find a lawyer and kind of go over the specifics
of your case with them. So hopefully that helped, go ahead and, you know, share,
subscribe, comment, all this stuff, but enjoy the video and I will talk to you
next time. Thanks
Hi everybody, it's Andy and welcome again to my office in Modesto, California. I'm
an attorney licensed to practice law in California as well as New York. In this
video I'm going to go over how California law treats meal breaks for
hourly employees. Now I'm hoping a lot of us can sort of, you know, work from our own
personal experience here or intuit from the term "meal break" the basic idea
is going to be that regardless of what it's called - lunch break, dinner break,
whatever, it is a time period that your employer has to give you, the employee, so
that you can basically stop working, step away from your job and go eat
something. And then, you know, practically speaking, I'm hoping some of you have also,
you know, basically gone out to eat or, you know, gone out to do a personal errand,
basically left the employer's premises during the meal break. Generally that's
allowed. The flip side of that is that meal breaks generally are not paid. So
all of that said then as much common sense kind of practical experience, you
know a lot of us have, I also find it very surprising that a lot of employers
don't know about meal breaks. They don't know that they're supposed to give them
at all and then if they do give them, they don't know the correct frequency,
you know, the interval with which they're supposed to give them. The flip side of
that equation is also true so the thing is I'm surprised by the number of employees,
I guess, who don't know what their meal break rights are and they don't know
what meal breaks they're supposed to receive like, you know, how much time
they're supposed to receive, they don't know how frequently they're supposed to
receive them. So I guess all of that said then, regardless of which side of that
coin you're on - you know if you're an employee or employer - hopefully this
video should be equally helpful for you. So all that said then, the governing
statute that we're going to be working with today is California Labor Code
section 512, which as always I'm going to go ahead and write over here as well as
paste a link in the description down below for you. So go ahead and take a
look at that if that is of interest to you. So if you look at 512
then, I mean, you basically can see that it breaks down like this: There is a
general rule about the, I guess, the minimum frequency with which meal breaks
have to be given. They can be given more frequently than the stated minimum, but,
you know, the statute basically requires no less, I guess, no less
infrequently than what's stated. So that general rule then for the frequency, the
the meal breaks themselves can be waived under certain circumstances as well
depending on whether or not the criteria are satisfied. So, um, the I guess - it's
kind of complicated way to explain it - but the basic idea then, the general rule
is you can get, you as the employer can give meal breaks however often you want.
It's very common, for example, in some, you know, in some kind of occupations to start
work at 8 and have a lunch break at 12, for example, so four hours. That's
common. You can do it that way. The minimum specified in the statute is your
employer can make you the employee work for at most five hours before you as the
employee are entitled to a meal break of at least 30 minutes. So then that's what
I mean like the employer can, you know, shrink that five hour time period but they
can't go beyond five. So the rule of thumb, I guess, the minimum rule of thumb to
remember is at most five hours of work before at least thirty minutes of meal
break. So, uh, that kind of general rule repeats as well. So the thing is, you know,
after five hours you're entitled to 30 minutes. After the second five hours - let's say
that you work a, you know, 11 or 12 hour shift - after the second five hours, at the
tenth hour, you're entitled to another meal break as well. So assuming that, you know,
none of the meal breaks are waived. And there are certain waiver conditions like
this: so, Labor Code section 512 allows a meal break to be waived in two
circumstances. Number one is if the employee works, er, works less than six
hours per day, excuse me. So less than six hours in a given day.
Normally they are entitled to at least one meal break. Can that meal break be
waived? And the answer to that question is yes it can. By mutual agreement, you
know, depending on, I guess, the industry, the work environment, it might be
beneficial to waive that meal break and the employee and the employer
can mutually agree to do that. It is not required in the statute but, you know,
general good practice, I think: if there is a waiver, get it in writing. Get it
signed by the employer and the employee and the employer and the employee should
both keep a copy of it. Again that's just general good practice. So the first kind
of waiver situation to summarize then is less than six hours that first meal, that meal
break can be waived by mutual agreement. The second waiver situation is a lot
more complicated to explain. If the employee works at least 10 hours, but
less than 12, under the general rule they are entitled to at least two meal breaks
right? So 30 minutes after the first five hours at least and then another 30
minutes after the second five hours. Can they waive the second 30 minute meal
break by mutual agreement and the answer to that question is, again, yes. It is
possible to waive that second 30 meal, second 30 minute meal break, excuse me,
between the employer and the employee, again, by mutual agreement. You know, in
writing, signed by both parties, you know, both parties keep a copy. The requirement,
however, is that if you waive the second 30 minute meal break, you cannot waive
the first one. So you basically, you know, if you're an employee, you can't be
forced to work for, you know, 10 or 11 hours, 12 hours, whatever it is, without at
least one meal break. You cannot waive out of both, I guess, is the bottom line. So
hopefully that was not terribly, you know, confusing, I guess, for any of you. Go
ahead and watch this video again. To summarize then, there is a minimum
frequency, I guess, for meal breaks: at most five hours before at least 30
minutes. Now, excuse me, the meal breaks rather can be waived. The first one is
if you work less than six hours and you do it by mutual
payment. The second waiver situation is you work more than 10 hours, less than 12,
you waive the second meal break by mutual agreement, but you cannot waivee the
first one. Yeah so hopefully all that was not too confusing. Go ahead and watch
this video again. Leave a comment, share, subscribe, all that nice stuff and I will
talk to you guys next time. Thanks.