California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 519

Introduced by Assembly Member Logue

February 20, 2013

An act to amend Section 512 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 519, as introduced, Logue. Working hours: meal periods.

Existing law, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work more than 5 hours per day without providing a meal period and, notwithstanding that provision, authorizes the Industrial Welfare Commission to adopt a working condition order permitting a meal period to commence after 6 hours of work if the commission determines the order is consistent with the health and welfare of affected employees. Existing law exempts employees in certain occupations from these provisions.

This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the above provisions.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 512 of the Labor Code is amended to
read:

512.  

(a) An employer begin delete may end delete begin insert shall end insert not employ an employee for
a work period of more than five hours per day without providing
the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except
that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more
than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent
of both the employer and employee. An employer begin delete may end delete begin insert shall end insert not
employ an employee for a work period of more than 10 hours per
day without providing the employee with a second meal period of
not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total hours worked is
no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived by
mutual consent of the employer and the employee only if the first
meal period was not waived.

(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the Industrial Welfare
Commission may adopt a working condition order permitting a
meal period to commence after six hours of work if the commission
determines that the order is consistent with the health and welfare
of the affected employees.

(c) Subdivision (a) does not apply to an employee in the
wholesale baking industry who is subject to an Industrial Welfare
Commission wage order and who is covered by a valid collective
bargaining agreement that provides for a 35-hour workweek
consisting of five 7-hour days, payment of one and one-half times
the regular rate of pay for time worked in excess of seven hours
per day, and a rest period of not less than 10 minutes every two
hours.

(d) If an employee in the motion picture industry or the
broadcasting industry, as those industries are defined in Industrial
Welfare Commission Wage Order Numbers 11 and 12, is covered
by a valid collective bargaining agreement that provides for meal
periods and includes a monetary remedy if the employee does not
receive a meal period required by the agreement, then the terms,
conditions, and remedies of the agreement pertaining to meal
periods apply in lieu of the applicable provisions pertaining to
meal periods of subdivision begin delete (a) of this section, end delete begin insert (a), end insert Section 226.7,
and Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order Numbers 11 and
12.

(e) Subdivisions (a) and (b) do not apply to an employee
specified in subdivision (f) if both of the following conditions are
satisfied:

(1) The employee is covered by a valid collective bargaining
agreement.

(2) The valid collective bargaining agreement expressly provides
for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of
employees, and expressly provides for meal periods for those
employees, final and binding arbitration of disputes concerning
application of its meal period provisions, premium wage rates for
all overtime hours worked, and a regular hourly rate of pay of not
less than 30 percent more than the state minimum wage rate.

(f) Subdivision (e) applies to each of the following employees:

(1) An employee employed in a construction occupation.

(2) An employee employed as a commercial driver.

(3) An employee employed in the security services industry as
a security officer begin insert , end insert who is registered pursuant to Chapter 11.5
(commencing with Section 7580) of Division 3 of the Business
and Professions Code, and who is employed by a private patrol
operator registered pursuant to that chapter.

(4) An employee employed by an electrical corporation, a gas
corporation, or a local publicly owned electric utility.

(g) The following definitions apply for the purposes of this
section:

(1) “Commercial driver” means an employee who operates a
vehicle described in Section 260 or 462 of, or subdivision (b) of
Section 15210 of, the Vehicle Code.

(2) “Construction occupation” means all job classifications
associated with construction by Article 2 (commencing with
Section 7025) of Chapter 9 of Division 3 of the Business and
Professions Code, including work involving alteration, demolition,
building, excavation, renovation, remodeling, maintenance,
improvement, and repair, and any other similar or related
occupation or trade.

(3) “Electrical corporation” has the same meaning as provided
in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code.

(4) “Gas corporation” has the same meaning as provided in
Section 222 of the Public Utilities Code.

(5) “Local publicly owned electric utility” has the same meaning
as provided in Section 224.3 of the Public Utilities Code.