Meal & Rest Breaks

Last week, the California Supreme Court issued a sweeping decision adopting a new test that will make it much harder for companies to show that workers qualify as independent contractors instead of employees.  The ruling affects all companies in California that work with independent contractors, which includes freelance workers and outside consultants. The Court’s decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles may end up requiring companies that work with independent contractors to follow wage and hour laws that apply in the typical employer-employee relationship.

I’ve previously written about the importance of distributing employee handbooks, employment arbitration agreements and confidentiality agreements to your workforce. However, if you have employees who have little English literacy, it is important that you also provide translations of these key documents to your non-English speaking employees.

On December 22, 2016, the California Supreme Court addressed two related issues: (i) whether California law requires employers to permit off-duty rest breaks – that is, time during which an employee is relieved from all work-related duties and free from employer control, and (ii) does an employer satisfy its obligation to relieve employees from work-related duties and employer control if the employer requires its employees to remain on-call during rest breaks.