This blog series addresses common employment-related issues for cannabis industry professionals.
This post addresses meal and rest break requirements manufacturers and retailers of cannabis products should consider to ensure compliance with applicable state and federal law.
In addition to ensuring accurate timekeeping, employers should be mindful of various state-level meal and rest break laws, if any, that are applicable to their nonexempt employees. For example, California state law generally requires employers to provide nonexempt employees with a paid rest period of 10 consecutive minutes for every four hours of work, or major fraction thereof, and a 30-minute unpaid meal period for every work period of five or more hours in a day. Other states have similar requirements.
Employers in the cannabis industry should make sure that all employees eligible for meal and rest breaks receive those breaks in compliance with applicable law. Failure to provide uninterrupted rest and meal periods may entitle an employee to additional pay and/or penalties under applicable state law and can expose employers to class and collective action. Questions employers should consider when administering meal and rest breaks include:
A slew of NYPD officers recounted on Sunday horror stories from their careers in which they say they were falsely accused of sexual misconduct and, despite being exonerated, had the allegations sh...