What to Do When Employees' Meal Breaks Are Interrupted or Missed

By Chrystina R. Solum | Related Practices: Employment and For Employers

Washington employers must provide nonexempt employees with an uninterrupted 30-minute meal break when the employee works more than five (5) consecutive hours. The meal break is unpaid and must begin no less than two hours nor more than five hours after the start of the employee’s shift. No employee should be required to work more than five consecutive hours without a meal break.

Recently in Androckitis v. Virginia Mason, Division I of the Washington Court of Appeals addressed employers’ obligations when nonexempt employees work through some or all of those meal breaks. The Court held that Washington employers have an affirmative duty to ensure that nonexempt employees receive an uninterrupted, unpaid 30-minute meal break. If the meal break is interrupted or missed, employers must (1) pay the employee for the time they worked during the meal break; and (2) provide the employee with a rescheduled, uninterrupted 30-minute meal break. The Court held that if employees do not receive a rescheduled, uninterrupted 30-minute meal break, employers must pay employees an additional 30 minutes for each missed meal period. That is, in addition to paying employees for the 30 minutes they worked through their originally scheduled meal break, employers must add 30 minutes to nonexempt employees’ timesheets for each missed meal break. The Androckitis court further held that failure to pay employees for their missed meal break and penalty time in a timely fashion could result in double damages for willfulness. As a result, Virginia Mason was responsible for paying employees up to 120 minutes for each missed meal break. Unresolved by Androckitis is whether employers must pay employees an additional 30-minute penalty if their original meal break or the rescheduled meal break commence more than five hours after the start of the employee’s shift.

Key Takeaways and Best Practices:

• Ensure that nonexempt employees receive at least one 30-minute uninterrupted meal period if the employee will work more than five consecutive hours.
• If the meal period is missed or interrupted, the employee must be paid for the time they are working and a second meal period must be provided.
• If a second meal period is not rescheduled, add an additional 30 minutes of time to their timesheet for that day.
• If missed or interrupted meal breaks occur in your workplace more than rarely, consider scheduling meal breaks so that there is time for a rescheduled meal break to commence before the employee has worked five hours.
• Employers may not take a hands-off approach; encourage, enable, and ensure that nonexempt employees receive their uninterrupted 30-minute unpaid meal break, and properly compensate employees if the meal break is missed. Review your policies and procedures to ensure compliance with these obligations.
• Nonexempt employees may waive their meal break, but the burden is on the employer to prove that each and every instance of missed meal breaks were truly voluntary. It will not be considered a voluntary waiver if the employee missed their meal break due to workload or staffing levels. Although the waiver does not have to be in writing, it is a best practice to have the waiver in writing.
• Compensation for missed meal breaks should be paid in a timely fashion to minimize the risk of being assessed double damages, interest, and attorney fees for willful withholding.
• Failure to follow these guidelines could result in nonexempt employees receiving up to 120 minutes of compensation for a single missed 30-minute meal break (30 minutes for the time worked during the missed meal break, 30 minutes as a penalty, and up to 60 minutes doubled for willful failure to pay). 

If you have questions about meal break compliance or how this ruling may affect your workplace policies, please contact the Stokes Lawrence employment team. We’re here to help ensure your business remains compliant and protected.