Takeaway: In addition to federal Fair Labor Standards Act requirements, employers need to know state wage and hour requirements. Meal and rest break laws can be challenging for most employers, but even more so for multistate employers, because the requirements vary significantly from state to state.
An employer is not required to pay an employee for lunch breaks when she was admittedly not working during her break, despite the employee clocking back in before 30 minutes had elapsed, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The court's decision upheld a federal district court ruling on Wisconsin's law regarding break times and hours worked.
The employer is a dental services organization in Wisconsin with multiple offices across the state. The employee was hired as an office manager for one of the locations. The office closed from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. every day and did not schedule patients during that time. Employees were expected to take an hourlong lunch break, during which they were not required to work and were free to leave the office. The employee handbook instructed employees to clock out for lunch time and not clock back in until lunch was finished and the next scheduled patient had arrived.
Wisconsin law requires employers to compensate employees for breaks less than 30 minutes but does not consider bona fide meal periods as "hours worked." To be bona fide, a meal period must be 30 minutes or more, and the employee must be completely relieved of duties. In...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...