Ian C. Schaefer, Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment practice, in the New York office, Margaret C. Thering, Associate in the Labor and Employment practice, in the New York office, and Gregg Settembrino, paralegal in the New York office, authored a blog post titled “How the Apple Class Certification Ruling Affects All Tech Companies” that was also posted by Law360.
Following is an excerpt:
On July 21, 2014, in Felczer v. Apple Inc., Judge Ronald S. Prager of the Superior Court of California granted class certification as to a class of approximately 21,000 current and former Apple retail and corporate employees on claims alleging Apple failed to provide timely meal and rest breaks as required under California Law. The California Labor Code, with a few exceptions, requires employers to provide non-exempt employees with 30-minute unpaid and duty-free meal breaks for every five hours worked. Additionally, employers must authorize and permit all non-exempt employees to take paid rest periods for a duration of 10 minutes for every four hours worked. The penalty for failing to provide statutory meal and rest periods is a one-hour meal period premium for each employee for each missed meal or rest period, at his or her regular hourly rate of pay.