Several cases over the past few years have made it much easier for truck drivers in California to collect unpaid wages for missed meal and rest breaks. These decisions have also clarified that truck drivers in California who are paid by the mile or by the load must be paid separately for time that they are not actually 
driving. This means that companies that pay their drivers by the piece must also pay them an hourly rate for time spent doing things like vehicle inspections and stand-by time.
For example, in Bluford v. Safeway Stores, Inc., a group of truck drivers sued Safeway for unpaid rest breaks. Section 226.7 of the California Labor Code and Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order 9 require employers to permit employees to take 10 minute rest breaks for every four hours (or major portion thereof) worked. The first rest break kicks in after three and a half hours of work. The second kicks in after six hours, and the third after 10 hours. In other words, an employee who works a shift that is more than 10 hours long is owed three rest breaks. Although employees are free from job duties during these breaks, the employer is required to pay for them and cannot deduct the rest breaks from employees’ wages.
The Bluford drivers claimed that Safeway had violated these requirements because it paid drivers based upon miles driven and tasks performed, but did not pay them for their rest breaks. Safeway responded that it did not deduct any pay from the drivers’ paychecks, and thus did not violate the law.
The California Court of Appeal agreed with the drivers. The court held that the drivers’ claim that they were not paid separately for rest breaks was enough to state a claim under Wage Order 9. In other words, where drivers are paid by the mile or by the task, the employer must pay them separately for their rest breaks. (On a separate but related note, if a driver is unable to take a rest break, the employer must compensate him or her with an additional hour of pay.) Continue reading “The Road Ahead for California Truckers: Rest Breaks, Piece-Rate Work, and Federal Preemption”
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