Get Your Time BACK! Paid Break Laws.
The other half of the country may be buried in snow, not so much in California. The golden state still battles heat related issues for workers in some industries. New mandated protections of break time to improve working conditions were added to the CA labor codes for this year, new labor law SB435.
Plenty of employees will be unaffected, but if you work outdoors performing a labor intensive job in southern California you should be aware of your rights to PAID break time. The CA office of Industrial Welfare is charged with the regulation of safe and healthy working conditions as well as fair wages in certain industries. Once SB435 was voted in, all employees are now required to have a paid rest period for every four hours they spend on the job, when possible this is to be near the middle of the four hour period in order to allow the worker time to cool down and recover from strenuous work.
The biggest change provided by the new law lies in the definition of that rest time. During the rest break no employee can be asked to perform ANY work related duties. If you are given your break from working on the production floor, they cannot require that you sit in the office and work on a desk job while you cool off. The cool off period must also be separate from your lunch period.
It is not required that any employee working less than three hours get a break, but if you work more than four hours and have been repeatedly denied these breaks or not paid, you may be able to collect interest and penalties on top of the base time, overtime or double time you may be owed.
While you cannot be given any work to do during these rest periods, the company can dictate that you must stay on site because you are being paid. Because you are still “clocked in” your employer can require that you adhere to behavioral standards. This means they have the right to tell you there is no smoking on the premises, which means if you are required to stay onsite during your break you may not smoke.
Certain exceptions do exist as usual, mostly pertaining to any 24 hour care and on-call workers in specific industries such as assisted living and care facilities. Because these laws tend to get more complicated the deeper you dig, the best defense you have is a knowledgeable Labor Attorney who knows them inside and out.
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