California Break Attestation Time Clock Feature

Overview

Under California law, employers must provide:

• A 30‑minute unpaid, uninterrupted meal break when an employee works more than five hours in a workday (and a second meal break if the shift exceeds ten hours)  .
• Paid 10‑minute rest breaks for every four hours worked or a major fraction thereof.
• See https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_MealPeriods.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com for more information.

California law requires not only that breaks be available, but that employers can demonstrate employees were given a real opportunity to take them—free from pressure or interference. Failing to meet this may trigger premium pay penalties (typically one extra hour’s pay per missed break)  .

Judicial precedent (e.g., Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC) recognizes that electronic break attestations can serve to shift the burden: a system requiring an employee to confirm whether they were provided a break can help document compliance even if a break wasn’t clocked out or was non‑compliant. 

Inn-Flow's California Break Attestation does just that! With Time Clock prompting and a dedicated report, Inn-Flow gives you everything you need to ensure compliance.

How to Enable Break Attestation in Inn-Flow

If you're an Admin, you can enable the Break Attestation feature any time. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to Administration.
2. Click Entities.
3. Select the hotel (entity) for which you want to activate the feature.
4. Go to Subscriptions.
5. Expand the Labor section.
6. Locate Break Attestation and toggle it ON.

Once enabled, at clock‑out, employees that meet the required thresholds will be prompted:

“Were you provided an opportunity to take all breaks for all qualifying shifts today?”

1. If Yes: system records the response.
2. If No: the employee can provide a comment explaining why.

Managers can access responses via the Break Attestation Report, review any “No” responses, follow up as needed, adjust timecards, or apply premium pay—creating a transparent audit trail of compliance efforts.

Why This Matters for Employers

1. Compliance documentation: supports evidence that employees were given break opportunities.
2. Proactive issue resolution: employees have a protected channel to report concerns.
3. Audit-ready reporting: managers can generate reports, address exceptions, and correct issues before they escalate.
4. Legal risk mitigation: strengthens defenses against break-related claims or class-action suits.