In the state of California, non-exempt workers are entitled to a 30 minute unpaid meal break for each five hour period worked during their shift. When the shift duration is between 5 and 6 hours the meal period can be waived by mutual consent of the employer and the employee. When the employee works between ten and twelve hours, their second meal period can be waived, but only if they didn’t waive their first meal period.

It is best practice for a business to keep a documented record for when workers waive breaks, as this can be called upon as evidence should breaks ever be brought into question by a current or past employee.

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You can setup a break waiver for your company using clock out disclaimers. Once enabled the break waiver form will be presented to workers when they clock out of their shift. All clock out disclaimers are version controlled so the exact wording presented to the worker on clock out can be retrieved from any timecard.

The SocialSchedules clock out disclaimers also allow for instructions to be presented when the worker chooses not to waive their break. In this scenario, it is advised that workers inform their on-duty manager and the manager manually adds the extra hour of pay as an allowance to the timecard once the shift is completed.