DLSE Issues Report on Public Forum Regarding Meal Breaks
This month, California’s Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) posted on its website a report on the public forums held last summer regarding California’s meal period rules and their effect on the workplace. To view the report and related information, click here: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/mealandrest/MRForumReport.pdf; http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/mealandrest/MRsummaryComments.pdf; http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/mealandrest/MRForumTranscript.pdf. The timing of issuance of the report is interesting, given that California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal is expected to issue a decision in the near future on what it means to “provide” a meal period under California law. Oral argument before the Court of Appeal was held in mid-May in the Brinker v. Hohnbaum matter and a decision should issue by August. The DLSE reportedly sent a letter to the Brinker court late last year urging the court to decide this unsettled issue in a published decision. For more information on the Brinker v. Hohnbaum case, see our prior posts of October 23, 2007 and November 12, 2007.