Gustavo Naranjo worked as a guard for Spectrum Security Services, Inc. (Spectrum), which contracts with federal agencies to transport prisoners who have appointments outside custodial facilities. Naranjo was fired after leaving his post to take a meal break, in violation of a Spectrum policy that required custodial employees to remain on duty during all meal breaks.

Naranjo filed a class action on behalf of himself and other Spectrum employees, alleging that Spectrum violated state meal break requirements under the Labor Code. The complaint sought an additional hour of pay (also known as “premium pay”) for each day on which Spectrum failed to provide employees a meal break.

After several hurdles, the trial court certified a class for the meal break and related timely payment and wage statement claims and then held a trial in stages. In determining the employer’s liability for meal break violations, the court noted that an employer ordinarily must provide covered employees an off-duty meal period on shifts lasting longer than five hours. An exception to this requirement allows for “on duty” meal periods if “the nature of the work prevents an employee from being relieved of all duty,” but only when “by written agreement between the parties an on-the-job paid meal period is agreed to.”

Naranjo did not dispute that Spectrum had always required on-duty meal periods as company policy because of the nature of its guards’ work. However, Spectrum did not have a valid written...

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