California has been at the center of a hot issue in employment litigation: the extent to which companies have a legal duty to provide meal breaks for their employees.

Under California law, companies cannot pressure employees to skip meal breaks nor can employers establish a work environment that discourages or prevents employees from taking meal breaks, according to this post from the Wage & Hour Defense Blog.  Companies, however, are not required to ensure that employees actually take meal breaks, according to the blog.

This California law has given rise to a veritable buffet of meal-break claims on the West Coast, with employees recovering damages in some cases but not others.

On Friday, pest-control company Terminix finalized a $1.5 million settlement with workers who claimed that they had been required to work long hours without overtime, rest breaks and meal periods, according to this report from the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/08/30/food-for-litigation-companies-sued-for-failing-to-provide-meal-breaks/