Gerard v. Orange Coast Mem'l Med. Ctr., S241655

• Decision Date: 10 December 2018
• Docket Number: S241655
• Citation: 430 P.3d 1226,240 Cal.Rptr.3d 757,6 Cal.5th 443
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: Jazmina GERARD et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. ORANGE COAST MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, Defendant and Respondent.

6 Cal.5th 443

430 P.3d 1226

240 Cal.Rptr.3d 757

Jazmina GERARD et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants,

v.ORANGE COAST MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, Defendant and Respondent.

S241655

Supreme Court of California.

Filed December 10, 2018

Law Offices of Mark Yablonovich, Mark Yablonovich ; Capstone Law, Glenn A. Danas, Robert K. Friedl, Arlene M. Turinchak and Ryan H. Wu for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, Richard J. Simmons, Derek R. Havel, Daniel J. McQueen, Robert J. Stumpf, Jr., and Karin Dougan Vogel for Defendant and Respondent.

Seyfarth Shaw, Jeffrey A. Berman, James M. Harris and Kiran A. Seldon for California Hospital Association as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Opinion of the Court by Liu, J.

The Labor Code generally provides that employees who work more than five hours must be provided with a 30-minute meal period and that employees who work more than 10 hours must be provided with an additional 30-minute meal period. ( Lab. Code, § 512, subd. (a) ; all undesignated statutory references are to this code.) An employee who works no more than six hours may waive the meal period, and an employee who works no more than 12 hours may waive the second meal period. (Ibid. ) A wage order of the Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) permits health care employees to waive the second meal period even if they have worked more than 12 hours. The hospital that is the defendant in this case allowed employees working shifts longer than 12 hours to waive the second meal period, and the employees who are the plaintiffs here waived their second meal periods. Plaintiffs now claim that the IWC order permitting them to waive second meal periods for shifts greater than 12 hours violates the Labor Code and that the hospital must pay back wages and penalties for unlawfully permitting waiver of the second meal period. Considering the relevant statutory and regulatory provisions in light of their history, we agree with the Court of Appeal that the IWC order does not violate the Labor Code.

I.

Plaintiffs Jazmina Gerard, Kristiane McElroy, and Jeffrey Carl are health care workers who were formerly employed by defendant Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (Hospital). According to their complaint, plaintiffs usually worked 12-hour shifts and sometimes worked shifts longer than 12 hours. A Hospital policy allowed health care employees who worked shifts longer than 10 hours caring for patients to voluntarily waive one of their two meal periods, even if their shifts lasted more than 12 hours. Plaintiffs alleged they signed second meal period waivers and occasionally worked shifts longer than 12 hours without being provided a second meal period. Plaintiffs contended that these second meal period waivers violated the Labor Code, and they sought penalties, unpaid wages, and injunctive relief for those and other violations. Gerard alleged claims on her own behalf and on behalf of others in the form of a private attorney general action. ( Lab. Code, § 2698, et seq. (Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 or PAGA).) McElroy and Carl also alleged claims on their own behalf and on behalf of others in the form of a class action. ( Code Civ. Proc., § 382.)

The Hospital asserted as an affirmative defense that the meal period waivers had conformed to the applicable IWC wage order. The Hospital moved for summary judgment against Gerard on all of her individual and PAGA claims, asserting that there was no disputed issue of material fact as to the cause of action for meal period violations because the plaintiffs were provided meal periods as required by law. The trial court granted the Hospital’s motion for summary judgment and its subsequent motion to deny class certification. Plaintiffs appealed.

As explained in greater detail below, the Court of Appeal initially reversed the trial court, holding that although the meal period waivers were obtained in conformity with the applicable wage order, that wage order violated a provision of the Labor Code generally prohibiting second meal period waivers for employees working shifts longer than 12 hours. We granted the Hospital’s petition for review and transferred the case to the Court of Appeal with directions to consider recently enacted legislation that was potentially pertinent to the case. The Court of Appeal subsequently reversed course and affirmed the trial court’s rulings in favor of the Hospital. We then granted plaintiffs’ petition for review.

II

Wage and hour claims, including claims regarding the availability and timing of meal breaks, are "governed by two complementary and occasionally overlapping sources of authority: the provisions of the Labor Code, enacted by the Legislature, and a series of 18 wage orders, adopted by the IWC." ( Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1004, 1026, 139 Cal.Rptr.3d 315, 273 P.3d 513 ( Brinker ).) "To the extent a wage order and a statute overlap, we will seek to harmonize them, as we would with any two statutes." ( Id. at p. 1027, 139 Cal.Rptr.3d 315, 273 P.3d 513.) But because the Legislature is the source of the IWC’s authority, a provision of the Labor Code will prevail over a wage order if there is a conflict. (See id. at p. 1026, 139 Cal.Rptr.3d 315, 273 P.3d 513 ; California Hotel & Motel Assn. v. Industrial Welfare Com. (1979) 25 Cal.3d 200, 207–209, 157 Cal.Rptr. 840, 599 P.2d 31.)

In June 1993, at the urging of the health care industry, the IWC amended Wage Order 5–1989 to add subdivision 11(C), which permitted health care employees who worked shifts longer than eight hours to waive a second meal period. (Official Notice, Amends. to §§ 2, 3, & 11 of IWC Order No. 5–89 (June 30, 1993).) As the IWC’s Statement as to the Basis of Amendments explained: "The petitioner requested the IWC to allow employees in the health care industry who work shifts in excess of eight (8) total hours in a workday to waive their right to ‘any’ meal period ... as long as certain protective conditions were met. The vast majority of employees testifying at public hearings supported the IWC’s proposal with respect to such a waiver, but only insofar as waiving ‘a’ meal period or ‘one’ meal period, not ‘any’ meal period. Since the waiver of one meal period allows employees freedom of choice combined with the protection of at least one meal period on a long shift, on June 29, 1993, the IWC adopted language which permits employees to waive a second meal period provided the waiver is documented in a written agreement voluntarily signed by both the employee and the employer, and the waiver is revocable by the employee at any time by providing the employer at least one day’s notice." (Ibid. )

In 1999, the Legislature enacted Assembly Bill No. 60 (AB 60), known as the Eight-Hour-Day Restoration and Workplace Flexibility Act of 1999. This bill was passed in response to IWC wage orders that had eliminated overtime for employees working more than eight hours per day. The legislation repealed five wage orders, including Wage Order No. 5 covering the health care industry, and required the IWC to review its wage orders and readopt orders restoring daily overtime. (See Brinker , supra , 53 Cal.4th at p. 1045, 139 Cal.Rptr.3d 315, 273 P.3d 513.) The Legislature amended Labor Code section 510 to explicitly provide that "[a]ny work in excess of eight hours in one workday ... shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee." (Stats. 1999, ch. 134, § 4; compare stats. 1982, ch. 185, § 1 [earlier version of section 510 without that provision].) Section 511 was added to allow employers and employees to agree on an alternative workweek that permitted employees to work up to 10 hours per day within a 40-hour week without the obligation to pay overtime. AB 60 also added section 512, which for the first time set out statutory meal period requirements. ( Brinker , at p. 1045, 139 Cal.Rptr.3d 315, 273 P.3d 513.) Subdivision (a) of section 512 ( section 512(a) ) states in relevant part: "An employer may 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." (Italics added.)

Further, AB 60 added section 516, which stated: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law , the [IWC] may adopt or amend working condition orders with respect to break periods, meal periods , and days of rest for any workers in California consistent with the health and welfare of those workers." (Stats. 1999, ch. 134, § 10, italics added.) And AB 60 added section 517, which states in pertinent part in subdivision (a): "The Industrial Welfare Commission shall, at a public hearing to be concluded by July 1, 2000, adopt wage, hours, and working conditions orders consistent with this chapter without convening wage boards, which orders shall be final and conclusive for all purposes."

Consistent with that mandate, the IWC adopted a new version of Wage Order No. 5 on June 30, 2000, and it became effective on October 1, 2000. Section 11(D) of Wage Order No. 5 essentially readopted former section 11(C) discussed above: "Notwithstanding any other provision of this order, employees in the health care industry who work shifts in excess of eight (8) total hours in a workday may voluntarily waive their right to one of their two meal periods."

After section 11(D) was adopted, but before it became effective, the Legislature enacted Senate Bill No. 88 (SB 88), which among other things expanded the class of employees exempt from overtime to include certain computer software and nursing professionals. (See §§ 515, subd. (f), 515.5; Stats. 2000, ch. 492, §§ 2–3.) SB 88 also amended section 516 to say: "Except as provided in Section 512 ,...