As a result of an Oregon Court of Appeals ruling last week, Oregon employers that fail to provide their nonexempt employees with their paid 10-minute rest breaks may be liable to their employees for unpaid wages under Oregon’s wage and hour laws. In a case called Gafur v. Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center, the court accepted the employees’ argument that, as a result of the paid 10-minute break requirement under Oregon law, they are entitled "to receive four hours of wages for three hours and fifty minutes of work." Consequently, the court reasoned, employees who are not given 10-minute rest breaks have "provided ten minutes of services for which they were entitled to be compensated but were not." The court concluded that such employees have a claim against their employers for 10 minutes of "unpaid wages" for each missed rest break.
This is a significant departure from prior interpretations of the law on this issue. Trial courts in Oregon previously held that the law did not give individual employees a right to bring a lawsuit against an employer based on the allegation that the employee did not receive one or more 10-minute breaks. Instead, the employee could file a complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industries ("BOLI") and BOLI could, upon finding a violation, impose a penalty of up to $1,000 per violation. As a result of the court’s ruling in the Gafur case, however, individual employees, and potentially classes of employees, may be able to file lawsuits against their employers for failure to provide rest breaks.
Notably, the Court of Appeals rejected the plaintiffs’ claim that they also were entitled to recover unpaid wages for missed meal breaks. The court held that because Oregon law does not require that meal periods (unlike 10-minute rest periods) be paid, employees have no private right of action for "unpaid wages" against an employer for failure to provide the required meal breaks. (However, BOLI may still impose penalties for failure to provide meal breaks.)
The case is expected to be appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, which has the final word on this issue. But for now, Oregon employers need to know that the stakes on breaks have been raised substantially.
Reminders Regarding the Law on Breaks
Given the higher stakes, it is worth reviewing some basics to ensure compliance with Oregon law:
- It is not the employee’s choice whether or not to take rest breaks and meal periods—it is the law.
- An employer cannot allow an employee to skip breaks and leave early, even if that is what the employee tells the employer he or she wants to do.
- An employee who is relieved of duty for an uninterrupted 10 minutes has had a break. It is not necessary that the employee go to a designated break area, or leave his or her work station, or be expressly told that he or she is on a break.
- An employee cannot combine breaks together—i.e., save them up and take, for example, a single longer break in the course of the day. Breaks must be taken separately.
- The number of rest breaks and meal periods required for work periods up to 24 hours are:
|
Length of work period
|
Number of rest breaks required
|
Number of meal periods required
|
| 2 hrs or less |
0
|
0
|
| 2 hrs 1 min - 5 hrs 59 min |
1
|
0
|
| 6 hrs |
1
|
1
|
| 6 hrs 1 min - 10 hrs |
2
|
1
|
| 10 hrs 1 min - 13 hrs 59 min |
3
|
1
|
| 14 hrs |
3
|
2
|
| 14 hrs 1 min - 18 hrs |
4
|
2
|
| 18 hrs 1 min - 21 hrs 59 min |
5
|
2
|
| 22 hrs |
5
|
3
|
| 22 hrs 1 min - 24 hrs |
6
|
3
|
For further assistance on this or other wage and hour issues, please contact your Stoel Rives Labor and Employment attorney.