SAN JOAQUIN, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - Farmworkers who said they weren’t paid for rest breaks won a total of $416 after a California appeals court rejected for a second time their claims they should be paid not only the minimum wage for time they spent on rest breaks but an additional hour of pay under a separate section of the state Labor Code.
In a detailed, 18-page decision the Court of Appeal in San Joaquin said this would amount to being compensated twice for the same injury, which is not allowed. California labor law requires employers to provide paid rest breaks as well as “one additional hour of pay” when it fails to provide rest periods.
But in this case, the workers on Miguel Martinez’s farm didn’t claim they were denied rest breaks, only that they weren’t paid for the time they weren’t working. Martinez paid them on a piecework basis to prune grape vines.
The farmer they sued was ordered to pay an additional $17,775 in penalties under the California Private Attorneys General Act for failing to obey the labor statute. That law allows an “aggrieved employee” to sue on behalf of himself and other employees over violations of state labor laws.
The farmworkers sued on behalf of 100 other employees, and the appeals court rejected Martinez’s argument the plaintiffs couldn’t show all of them went unpaid during rest breaks.