Summer 2008 SBH Quarterly Newsletter
PDF FormatNo Wage Action for Failure to Provide Paid Breaks
In Gafur v. Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital & Medical Center, 344 Or 525 (2008), the Oregon Supreme Court held a failure to receive paid breaks does not give rise to a private wage action.
A class of hospital employees brought suit against their employer for wage violations. Among these claims, the class asserted claims for failure to provide lunch breaks and paid breaks. The Court of Appeals dismissed the lunch break claim but held the class could pursue a wage action for not receiving their paid breaks.
At issue was OAR 839-020-0050, enacted by the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries under the statutory authority of ORS 653.261, the statute pertaining to the establishment of minimum employment conditions. The Court of Appeals had noted that the administrative rule entitled employees to uninterrupted paid breaks of ten minutes in duration for every four hours worked. In terms of compensation, this meant employees were entitled to four hours of pay for working only three hours and fifty minutes. Employees deprived of their breaks thus worked ten minutes more without additional compensation. The court held the employees were entitled to a cause of action to recover that unpaid compensation of ten minutes.
The Supreme Court of Oregon, en banc, reversed the Court of Appeals. The Court considered the wage violation statute, which provides a cause of action for employees for violations of ORS 653.010 - 653.261. The Court found it did not need to consider whether the paid break rule exceeded BOLI’s statutory authority because nothing in the rule established entitlement to a wage claim for failure to receive paid breaks.
The Court explained that for purposes of wage and hour law, the paid break is still considered a work period. The rule did not create entitlement to an additional ten minutes of pay when a break is missed. Whether or not the break occurs, the employee is entitled to only four hours of pay for the four-hour work period. Moreover, the Court pointed to the fact that BOLI has always assessed civil penalties against employers that failed to provide breaks but not wage penalties.
The Oregon Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and held no individual wage action could be maintained for failure to provide paid breaks.
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