Rest breaks of 10 minutes per four hours worked must be provided under IWC Work Orders. Unless the employer can show that the workers will not be harmed and that a different schedule alleviates a significant burden on the employer, the rest breaks for a 6 or 8 hour work shift must be provided with one break before and one after the required 30 minute meal break. Here, the employer combined the two rest breaks and gave employees a 20 minute rest break before the meal break. The employer’s evidence on summary judgment was sufficient to justify this practice, showing that employees preferred it and that it saved up to 20 minutes of production time by stopping production and restarting it only once rather than twice. However, the plaintiff employee’s evidence created a triable issue of fact as to whether this claimed time saving was real, so the trial court erred in granting the employer summary judgment.
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 4 (Manella, J.); April 22, 2016; 2016 WL 1613803