Arnold changes lunch rules
Break required before 6th hour of work
By David M. Drucker, Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO -- Continuing his effort to make California more employer-friendly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has loosened the restrictions governing when an employee can take a lunch break.
Under regulations that took effect Friday, employers must allow their workers to take a daily lunch break prior to their sixth hour on the job. The old rules dictated the break be offered before the fifth hour, and administration officials say the change creates flexibility that will benefit employers and employees.
"It doesn't take away the lunch period at all," Labor and Workforce Development Agency Assistant Secretary Rick Rice said, in response to criticism from the California Labor Federation claiming the change amounted to the elimination of an employee's legal right to a lunch break.
Union officials blasted the rule change, as well as the method used to implement it, insisting the rule frees businesses from the legal requirement that they provide employees a lunch break. "This has massive implications for every private-sector worker in California because it's a preposterous attempt to undo a law that says they deserve a meal break," CLF Executive Director Treasurer Art Pulaski said.
The Schwarzenegger administration enacted the adjustments as an "emergency" regulation change, allowing them to take effect immediately.
