Must Employers Force Worker Breaks?

The California Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that employers do not have to force workers to take the breaks to which they’re entitled. Employees still are due their time off during the workday, but the boss doesn’t have to play Big Brother.

As Associate Justice Kathryn Werdegar said in writing for the court: “The employer is not obligated to police meal breaks and ensure no work thereafter is performed.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, California and Nevada are the only states requiring time-and-half pay on any given day when an employee works past eight hours. The federal rule, followed by most states, is that overtime pay kicks in only after 40 hours have been worked in a seven-day period.

The court case that gave rise to the ruling is still alive and deals with the state’s overly rigid rules regarding overtime.