Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Split shift premium loophole?

A restaurant manager is scheduling

employees to work double shifts. The

schedule lists two start times, one

for lunch and one for dinner.

Those employees are being told that,

regardless of what time their lunch

shift happens to end that day (let's

say 2 hours before the start of

scheduled dinner shift), they must

return to work within less than one

hour, which would be an hour earlier

than the scheduled dinner shift.

Likewise, if the lunch shift ends only

15 minutes before the scheduled

dinner shift begins, the employees

are told to take not more than a

one-hour break, but at least 30

minutes, allowing them to come in

after the scheduled time.

Is the manager trying to make this

break appear to be a ''bona fide rest

period'' in order to avoid paying the

split shift premium?

Wouldn't he have to eliminate the

2nd scheduled start time in order to

make that fly? But if he did that,

then he would have to pay a lot of

people to be at work during very slow

times.

What to do?

Thanks.

1 Answer from Attorneys

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