Archives: Meal and Rest Periods

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Lessons from 2021 on Avoiding Class Action Claims for Meal and Rest Break Violations in California

In 2021, the California Supreme Court handed down two important decisions, Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC and Ferra v. Loews Hollywood, LLC, that reinforce and refine tried-and-true lessons about meal and rest breaks. As California employers look ahead to their 2022 goals and try to lessen their risk of class action employment claims based on … Continue Reading

Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Wrongheaded Claim Challenging Discounted Meals for Employees

By Greg Mersol on July 23, 2018 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Wage and Hour

It turns out the lunch really is free. With low-hanging fruit like claimed misclassification of low-level supervisors already plucked, plaintiffs increasingly turn to more novel claims. In many instances, these involve more technical violations of state and federal law, but some really call into question whether the suit is for the benefit of the employees … Continue Reading

Court Approves Overtime Class Settlement After Initially Rejecting It

By Greg Mersol on January 16, 2015 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods

We wrote last May about the court’s rejection of a $1.75 million settlement in Cruz v. Sky Chefs, Inc., Case No. C-12-02705 DMR (N.D. Cal. 2014) [May 27, 2014]. The court’s decision related to the settlement of run-of-the-mill California wage and hour claims purportedly brought on behalf of approximately 3,000 employees involved in the preparation … Continue Reading

Another Federal Court Decertifies FLSA Collective Action of Hospital Workers Challenging Auto-Deduct Policy

By Gilbert Brosky on October 16, 2014 Posted in Collective Action, FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods

We have previously discussed that, while medical providers have become a common target of plaintiffs asserting wage and hour claims arising out of so-called “auto-deduct” policies, more and more courts are realizing that the inherently fact-specific nature of these lawsuits make class treatment very difficult. See our posts from June 23, 2014, and September 17, … Continue Reading

The Ninth Circuit Puts Up Road Block to Motor Carrier Arguing that California Break Laws are Preempted by the FAAA Act, But Leaves Some Wiggle Room

By Sabrina Shadi and Vartan Madoyan on July 11, 2014 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods

On Wednesday, the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision that, on its face, involved a technical preemption issue, but one that will have serious repercussions for those in the transportation industry operating in California. In plain terms, the question was whether California’s detailed meal and rest break requirements conflict with a … Continue Reading

California District Court Rejects Class Action Settlement Due To Fee, Enhancement, and Other Issues

By Greg Mersol on May 27, 2014 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods

Do your homework before you seek approval of a class action settlement! Meals on airlines have all but disappeared for anyone other than those in first class, but the company Sky Chefs contends on its website that it still serves over a million airplane meals a day. No, really! And, apparently, many of those meals are … Continue Reading

Employers Win Some, Lose Some, in California Cases Started Prior to Dukes

By Greg Mersol on October 30, 2013 Posted in FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods, Rule 23

Despite blockbuster cases like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011), and Brinker Rest. Corp. v. Superior Court, 273 P.3d 513, 527 (Cal. 2012), California remains a hotbed of employment class litigation as a recent spate of cases reflects. The Dukes case and others have certainly helped to level the playing field … Continue Reading

Dukes Of Hazard: Uniform Auto-Deduct Meal/Break Policy Insufficient to Establish 23(a)(2) Commonality

By Todd Dawson on July 17, 2013 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Rule 23

The Supreme Court’s Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes opinion has once again played Bo and Luke to a plaintiff’s Boss Hogg. The plaintiffs in Raposo v. Garelick Farms LLC, Case No. 11-11943, D. Mass. (July 11, 2013), were truck drivers who made deliveries out of two locations operated by a dairy distribution company. The company … Continue Reading

Pennsylvania District Court Denies Certification Of Off-The-Clock Case (Again)

By Greg Mersol on June 7, 2013 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Off-the-clock, Wage and Hour

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again,” or so the adage goes. A recent case suggests that may not always be the right strategy or, more apropos to this blog, that off-the-clock cases make poor fodder for class action claims. In Hernandez v. Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc., Civil Action No. 10-5459 (E.D. Pa. … Continue Reading

The Fourth Circuit Uncovers A Lack Of Certification Analysis In Recent Pinkerton Class Action

By Jeffrey Vlasek on March 21, 2013 Posted in FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States. Shortly after his election, rumors of a possible plot to assassinate the decidedly pro-Union President-elect began to circulate. With several Southern states threatening secession from the Union, the tension in the D.C. area was palpable. On February 23, 1861, Lincoln … Continue Reading

Ohio District Court Decertifies Class of Health Care Workers in Meal Break Case

By Greg Mersol on February 12, 2013 Posted in FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods

We’ve commented several times in the past on the importance of the second phase of the two-step procedure now commonly employed by district courts in Fair Labor Standards Act cases. Under that procedure, courts will typically apply a lenient standard for “conditional certification,” really notice to the class, at the first stage. Following an opt-in … Continue Reading

Court of Appeal Turns Volume Down on Plaintiff in Meal Period Class Action Against RadioShack

By Greg Mersol on December 7, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Retail

Authorship credit: Dawn Kennedy The California Court of Appeal has maintained the recent post-Brinker trend of refusing to certify cases involving meal and rest period claims where an employer has a compliant break policy. In 2004, plaintiff Morry Brookler, a former RadioShack employee, asserted claims for meal period violations on behalf of “all non-exempted employees at … Continue Reading

California District Court Refuses to Certify Retail Rest and Meal Period Case

By Greg Mersol on November 26, 2012 Posted in FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods, Retail

In the wake of the California Supreme Court’s decision in Brinker Restaurant v. Superior Court, 165 Cal. 4th 1004 (2012) (see our post on the decision), cases refusing to certify rest and meal period have become far more common as a recent decision from the United States District Court for the Central District of California … Continue Reading

Sixth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment and Decertification of Auto-Deduction Overtime Case

By Greg Mersol on November 14, 2012 Posted in FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods

Punching in and out for meals and breaks is a pain – both for the employees and the employer. As a result, many employers use so-called auto deduction policies for meal periods and breaks, letting employees take their rest periods without punching in and out, but deducting a set time, usually 30 minutes for the … Continue Reading

Judge Denies Class Certification as California Courts Continue to Weather the Wake of Brinker

By Jeffrey Vlasek on May 22, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Wage and Hour

Sometimes, when a heavily hyped movie arrives in theaters, the tremendous business it generates can have a negative effect on all the other surrounding films. For example, The Avengers landed in American cinemas on May 4, 2012. Since that time, not only has it racked up astronomical box office figures of its own (in fact, … Continue Reading

Court Rejects NLRB’s Restrictive View of Class Action Waivers in Arbitration

By John Lewis on May 17, 2012 Posted in Arbitration, Meal and Rest Periods

NLRB’s D.R. Horton Decision and Public Policy Cannot Undermine Concepcion – Morvant v. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc. A Northern District of California judge has held that neither the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) decision in D.R. Horton, Inc., 357 N.L.R.B. No. 184 (January 3, 2012), nor the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 101 et … Continue Reading

California Appeals Court Finds Plaintiffs’ Counsel Inadequate, Upholds Denial of Class Certification Motion

By Gilbert Brosky on May 14, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Wage and Hour

It’s bad enough that a plaintiff’s attorney loses a motion to certify a class – it must be even worse when the reason the motion is denied is the attorney’s own failure to plead his case properly. A recent California court of appeals decision affirmed the denial of a California meal and rest break class … Continue Reading

California Supreme Court Limits Attorney Fee Awards in Meal and Rest Period Cases

By Greg Mersol on May 4, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods

A Decent Ruling, But Not All It Could Be Rest and meal period class actions have vexed California employers and outsiders trying to conduct business in California for several years. Even a minor violation is argued to cascade into an array of class-wide claims that have been used to extract tens or hundreds of millions … Continue Reading

California Supreme Court Decides Brinker

By Greg Mersol on April 12, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods

Employers Prevail on Duty to Provide Meal Periods; Mostly Good on Certification “We will decide no case before its time.” Alright, that’s not really the California Supreme Court’s motto, but it certainly did take its time deciding the Brinker case. During the three and a half years the case was pending before the state Supreme … Continue Reading

California Appeals Court Rejects Attempt to Try California Misclassification Case by Statistics

By Gilbert Brosky on February 13, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Overtime Claims, Wage and Hour

The California Court of Appeal issued a rare decision in favor of employers last week, when it reversed a class action judgment of $15 million and decertified a class of 260 current and former bank employees who claimed they had been misclassified as exempt and were therefore entitled to meal and rest break premiums. News … Continue Reading

Dukes Claims California Meal and Rest Period Cases

By Greg Mersol on January 31, 2012 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Retail, Wage and Hour

The Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011), seems to be taking hold in meal and rest period cases in California, as shown by two decisions handed down this month. The most recent casualty of the holding in Dukes is Cortez v. Best Buy Stores, LP, Case No. … Continue Reading

California Court Finds Meal and Rest Break Requirements Preempted

By Sabrina Shadi on October 31, 2011 Posted in FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods, Overtime Claims, Wage and Hour

Court Washes Out Meal and Rest Break Claims for Class of Whirlpool Drivers and Installers Tired of the stains those pesky meal and rest break requirements leave on your California operations? If your business is a motor carrier covered by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (“FAAA Act”), some power to help clean … Continue Reading

Unaccepted Offers of Judgment Ineffective in FLSA Collective Cases

By Greg Mersol on September 8, 2011 Posted in Class Certification, FLSA, Meal and Rest Periods

Plaintiffs frequently include collective action allegations in even run-of-the-mill FLSA cases. What if an employer concludes, however, that no matter how frivolous the underlying claim, the defense costs will be more than even an oversized settlement? In theory, an offer of judgment under Federal Rule 68 would be one avenue. By offering the plaintiff all … Continue Reading

Court Denies Certification of California Rest and Meal Period Class Against Apple

By Greg Mersol on July 26, 2011 Posted in Meal and Rest Periods, Retail, Rule 23

Another court has denied certification of a rest and meal period case under California law, this one relying at least in part on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, Case No. 10-277, 564 U.S.___ (Jun. 20, 2011). While many courts are simply staying California rest/meal period cases pending the outcome, if there ever … Continue Reading