An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 6 – Wage And Hour Laws

F. R EST P ERIODS

1. B ASIC R EQUIREMENTS All schools must provide non-exempt employees with paid rest periods in addition to meal periods. Employees are entitled to a ten minute rest period for every four hours they work. If an employee works less than three and one half hours, a school need not provide a rest period. In practice, this means that employees are entitled to 10 minutes rest for shifts from three and one- half to six hours in length, 20 minutes for shifts of more than six hours up to 10 hours, and 30 minutes for shifts of more than 10 hours up to 14 hours. 597 Authorized rest period time shall be counted as hours worked for which there shall be no deductions from wages. 598 While an employer may permit an employee to take a rest break immediately before or after a meal break, it is important to remember that the rest break must be paid time, whereas the meal break may be unpaid time. 2. R EQUIREMENTS I MPOSED D URING R EST P ERIODS During the required rest periods, schools must relieve their employees of all work and employment-related duties and relinquish any control over how employees spend their break time. 599 This means that schools cannot require employees to remain on-call during rest periods. 600 Employees must retain the freedom to use their rest periods for their own purposes. 3. P REMIUM P AY F OR F AILURE T O P ROVIDE A R EST P ERIOD A school that does not provide the required rest period must pay a premium of one additional hour at the employee’s regular rate of pay for each day a rest period was not given. 601 If an employer does not provide all of the rest periods required in a workday, the employee is entitled to one additional hour of pay for that workday, not one additional hour of pay for each rest period that was not provided. 602 G. S TANDBY O R O N -C ALL T IME Standby or on-call waiting time may be compensable for non-exempt employees if it is spent primarily for the benefit of the school and its business. A determination of whether the standby/on-call waiting time is spent predominantly for the school's benefit depends on two considerations: (1) the parties' agreement, and (2) the degree to which the employee is free to engage in personal activities. 603 However, California courts considering whether on call time constitutes hours worked have primarily focused on the extent of the employer’s control. 604 The following factors must be considered in evaluating the level of control exerted by employers: (1) whether there was an on-premises living requirement; (2) whether there were excessive geographical restrictions on employee’s movements; (3) whether the frequency of calls was unduly restrictive; (4) whether a fixed time limit for response was unduly restrictive; (5) whether the on-call employee could easily trade on-call responsibilities; (6) whether use of a pager could ease restrictions; and (7) whether the employee had actually engaged in personal activities during call-in time. 605 Because no one factor is dispositive, a court will balance the

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 170