On-Duty Meal Periods Must Last 30 Minutes in California

Although the owner of two residential care homes for seniors can provide employees with on-the-job meal periods during which the workers are not relieved of all duties, those periods must last at least 30 minutes, a California appeals court ruled.

In February 2016, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) issued wage and penalty citations to the homes' owner. The citations were for, among other things, failing to provide 30-minute meal periods under the California Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No. 5, which governs the public housekeeping industry.

A hearing officer affirmed the citations, which included about $89,000 in penalty and premium-pay assessments for failure to provide the 30-minute meal periods. In December 2016, the owner filed a lawsuit, challenging only the conclusion that it failed to provide meal periods as required. The trial court upheld the DLSE's determinations, concluding that even though the care homes were authorized to provide on-duty meal periods—as opposed to off-duty meal periods—to its employees, those meal periods still had to be at least 30 minutes long. The owner appealed, and the appellate court affirmed the lower court's ruling.

Wage Order Requirements

Under Wage Order No. 5, a California employee who works more than five hours is entitled to a 30-minute meal period. In most cases, a worker should be relieved of all duties during the meal period and is not paid for the time. When the nature of the work, however, prevents an employee from being relieved of all job tasks, a paid on-duty meal period is permissible.

[SHRM members-only HR Q&A: What are the meal and rest break requirements for California employees?]

The wage order explicitly allows an exception for "employees of 24-hour residential care facilities for the elderly." Under that provision, such employees may be required to work on-duty meal periods if one of the following two conditions is met:

• The residential care employee eats with residents during their meals, and the employer provides the same meal at no charge to the employee.
• The employee is in sole charge of the residents, and, on the day shift, the employer provides a meal at no charge to the employee.

Although the court agreed that the homes' employees fell under that exception and could therefore be required to take on-duty meal periods, the court rejected the claim made by the owner that, unlike the unpaid off-duty meal period, an on-duty meal period need not be 30 minutes long. The court ruled that on-duty meal periods must also be at least 30 minutes long. 

The court noted that on-duty meal periods are an intermediate category requiring more of employees than off-duty meal periods but less of employees than their normal work. Even if the homes' employees were not entitled to "an uninterrupted meal period," the court said, they should be given at least 30 minutes of "limited duty enabling them to eat their meal in relative peace."

The court noted that there were practical challenges in providing an on-duty meal period, no matter how long, and said that it was not addressing what constitutes an acceptable on-duty meal period.

L'Chaim House v. Department of Labor Standards Enforcement, Calif. Ct. App., No. A152975 (July 31, 2019).

Professional Pointer: This decision makes clear that a meal period taken while on duty does not change the requirement that it be at least 30 minutes long. However, the decision does not provide any guidance as to what types of duties, if any, an employee having an on-the-job meal may be required to perform.

Joanne Deschenaux, J.D., is a freelance writer in Annapolis, Md.