Employment: meal and rest periods.

Under existing law an employer is prohibited from requiring an employee to work during a meal or rest period mandated by an applicable order of the Industrial Welfare Commission and is required to pay a nonexempt employee one additional hour's pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation upon failure to provide the mandated meal or rest period. This bill would provide that the payment to the employee for failure to provide a mandated meal or rest period is a statutory penalty and does not constitute additional wages to the employee. The bill also would clarify that an employer provides a meal or rest period by making one available to the employee without interfering with its use. Existing law requires an employer to provide an employee who works more than 5 hours with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, unless the employee's total daily work period does not exceed 6 hours, in which case it may be waived by mutual agreement. This bill would provide that this meal period may commence at any time before the start of the 6th hour of work.