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Settlement Reached For Overtime Back Pay
For Unpaid Lunch
Periods
By: Dieter C. Dammeier
Lackie & Dammeier LLP
Coroner Investigators
for Los Angeles County had been working ten and one half hour shifts with
an unpaid thirty minute lunch period. When the coroner investigators
recently began being represented by the Los Angeles County Police Officers
Association, LACPOA began efforts to better the working conditions of
coroner investigators. One of LACPOA’s accomplishments included moving
the investigators from a ten and one half hour day (unpaid lunch) to a ten
hour day (paid lunch). While the County agreed to correct this concern,
it refused to pay back pay for the previous two years of lunch periods in
which the investigators were restricted, interrupted and on many
occasions, never received. LACPOA’s General Counsel, Lackie & Dammeier
LLP then filed a FLSA lawsuit to recover the unpaid overtime wages.
Under the Fair Labor
Standard Act and the Department of Labor’s subsequent regulation
553.223(a) meal periods for law enforcement officers may be excluded from
overtime provisions if the officers were “completely relieved at duty”
during the meal period. Despite the clear DOL regulation, courts have
been tilting in favor of management in defining what “completely relieved
at duty” means for FLSA purposes. Currently, courts look to determine if
the activity during the meal period is “predominately for the benefit of
the employer.” Henson v. Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department
(1993) 6 F. 3d 531. As such, the courts have been forced to look at the
issue on a case by case basis. Where the officers on meal periods are so
restricted such as the officers being required to remain in uniform, leave
contact information (such as a telephone number), respond to emergencies,
monitor their radio, stay within city limits and respond to questions from
the public, the courts have held that is enough to make the meal period
compensatable. Lamon v. City of Shawnee (1992) 972 F. 2d 1145,
Madera Police Officers Association v. City of Madera (1984) 204
Cal.Rptr. 422.
For the time period in
question, the coroner investigators were subject to numerous restrictions
during their lunch breaks that precluded them from attending to private
business. For example, the investigators were required to be available by
radio or telephone. It was not unusual that an investigator would skip
lunch to handle his or her case load. On numerous occasions their lunch
breaks were interrupted with calls for service.
At the conclusion of
the discovery phase in the case, the County agreed to compensate all of
the investigators for the meal periods that they were not compensated for,
plus attorney’s fees.
About the author,
Dieter C. Dammeier is a partner with the law firm of Lackie &
Dammeier LLP whose firm represents Police Associations throughout
California in disciplinary and labor matters.
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