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:
- Navigate to Administration.
- Click Entities.
- Select the hotel (entity) for which you want to activate the feature.
- Go to Subscriptions.
- Expand the Labor section.
- 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?”
- If Yes: system records the response.
- 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
- Compliance documentation: supports evidence that employees were given break opportunities.
- Proactive issue resolution: employees have a protected channel to report concerns.
- Audit-ready reporting: managers can generate reports, address exceptions, and correct issues before they escalate.
- Legal risk mitigation: strengthens defenses against break-related claims or class-action suits.
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