California Employees Can Prospectively Waive Their Meal Periods

By Swerdlow Florence Sanchez Swerdlow & Wimmer

May 9, 2025

In a rare piece of good news for California employers, the California Court of Appeal in Bradsbery v. Vicar Operating, Inc. just settled the outstanding question of whether prospective meal period waivers for employees working fewer than 6 hours in the day, voluntarily signed by employees, are valid and effective tools – they are, just as employment defense counsel have long suspected.

Meal Period Waivers

California Labor Code Section 512 provides that a non-exempt employee shall not work more than five hours per day without being provided a meal period of at least 30 minutes, “except that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer and employee.”

Up until now, whether employees must sign such a waiver for each meal they waive, or whether they may sign a general, prospective, and revokable waiver that would apply to all meals the employees choose to waive in the future, has been an outstanding question.

Bradsbery v. Vicar Operating, Inc.

In 2014, a class of former employees sued their employer for failure to provide compliant meal periods. The employer moved for summary adjudication regarding the validity of the prospective meal waivers – specifically written waivers of first meal periods. The trial court ruled in the employer’s favor despite the employees arguing that prospective waivers circumvent the statutory meal period requirements. On appeal, the Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court’s decision and held that the revocable, prospective, written waivers were enforceable in the absence of any indication that the waivers were unconscionable or coercive. The appellate court found that prospective meal waivers are consistent with the legislative and administrative history surrounding California Labor Code Section 512 and the California Wage Orders that permit waivers.

Key Take Aways For Employers

While the Court of Appeal’s ruling was specific to prospective first meal period waivers under California Labor Code Section 512 and California Wage Order Nos. 4 and 5, the appellate court’s reasoning should apply to similar meal waivers under most of the California Wage Orders, provided the signing of such waivers is not coercive or unconscionable. An important note, however: the Bradsbery decision dealt with meal period waivers when the employees’ workdays concluded within 6 hours. This case did not confront an employee’s decision to waive their meal period when working a regular, 8-hour shift. By extension, therefore, the appellate court’s reasoning in Bradsbery should also support the waiver of an employee’s second meal period when the employee has taken their first meal period and can complete their workday in not more than 12 hours.

Considering the Bradsbery decision, employers should provide employees who wish to waive their meal periods in these circumstances with well-written, voluntary, and prospective meal period waivers. Employers must not retaliate against their employees for refusing to sign a waiver, for refusing to waive a meal period, or for subsequently revoking that waiver.

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