How does an employer satisfy its obligation to provide a meal period according to the law?

An employer is not required to ensure that no work is performed.  However, an employer must do more than simply make a meal period “available.”

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In general, to satisfy its obligation to provide a meal period, an employer must actually relieve employees of all duty, relinquish control over their activities, permit them a reasonable opportunity to take an uninterrupted 30-minute break (in which they are free to come and go as they please), and must not impede or discourage employees from taking their meal period. 

For employees in the health care industry covered by IWC Orders 4 or 5, however, minor exceptions exist as to the employee’s right to leave the employment premises during an off-duty meal period.

Employers may not undermine a formal policy of providing meal periods by pressuring employees to perform their duties in ways that omit breaks (e.g., through a scheduling policy that makes taking breaks extremely difficult). 

As the California Supreme Court has noted, “The wage orders and governing statute do not countenance an employer’s exerting coercion against the taking of, creating incentives to forego, or otherwise encouraging the skipping of legally protected breaks.”  Which particular facts in any given case will satisfy the employer’s obligation to provide bona relief from all duty may vary from industry to industry.  See Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1004.