The California Supreme Court finally heard oral argument this month in Brinker v. Superior Court, nearly three years after the court granted the petition for review. One of the main issues on appeal concerns the scope of an employer’s meal period and rest break obligations to employees. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the argument before the Supreme Court addressed an employer’s obligation to “provide” meal periods to employees under the California Labor Code and the associated IWC Wage Orders. The justices’ questions during oral argument with respect to “providing” meal periods are sure to give California employers a better understanding of the court’s likely outcome, and potentially, an insight into the future of the trending “suitable seating” class actions in California.

These “suitable seating” claims are based upon California’s state Private Attorneys General Act, which was passed in 2004. PAGA enables “aggrieved employees” to file representative actions to enforce various provisions of the Labor Code that previously had not provided for the recovery of monetary penalties by private litigants. “Suitable seating” issues have been frequently asserted in California since the decision in Bright v. 99 Cents Only Stores, in which the California court of appeal held that aggrieved employees potentially could recover PAGA civil penalties for violations of a wage order pursuant to Labor Code §1198. A subsequent court of appeal decision, Home Depot USA v. Superior Court, reached the same conclusion.

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