What is a “blanket” or “prospective” meal period waiver?
California employers can offer non-exempt employees the opportunity to (1) waive their first meal period if their work period does not exceed six hours or (2) waive their second meal period when their workday lands between 10 and 12 hours and did not waive their first meal break. Often times, this written waiver is not handed out at each qualifying shift, but instead during onboarding or in a roll-out during a worker’s employment.
Workers have argued that “blanket” meal break waivers were impermissible. That is, until the Court of Appeal’s April 21 decision in Bradsbery, which makes clear that prospective meal period waivers are permissible, in specific and limited conditions.
Bradsbery
In Bradsbery, the plaintiffs filed a putative class action alleging their employer Vicar Operating, Inc. violated the California Labor Code governing meal breaks, by requiring plaintiffs and putative class members to work shifts between five and six hours without a meal period and without “waiv[ing] their legally mandated meal periods by mutual consent.” The complaint alleged Vicar owed the plaintiffs and class members premiums for missed meal periods.
Vicar filed a motion for summary adjudication to determine whether Vicar’s “blanket” meal period waivers to prospectively waive meal periods on qualifying shifts were enforceable under California law. The trial court granted Vicar’s motion for summary adjudication. The plaintiffs...
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