Through the grapevine: Workers can't get double recovery for break violations

The employees who filed the following case were farm laborers who were paid on a piece-rate basis for each grapevine they pruned. Under California law, employees paid on a piece-rate basis must be separately paid at least the minimum rate of pay for all rest periods they take. The employees sued because they hadn't been separately compensated for their rest breaks, asking the court to award them both the actual minimum wages for the rest breaks for which they weren't paid as well as the additional one-hour premium payment authorized by Labor Code Section 226.7. However, the court pruned back their claims.

Farmworkers paid for each grapevine they pruned

The case had a long and rather convoluted procedural history. Seven farm laborers initially filed a lawsuit in October 2009 against Miguel Martinez alleging multiple Labor Code violations. They later amended their complaint to add several more employees. Following a trial in 2014, the court entered judgment against six employees who failed to appear at trial and against three who it found had never even worked for Martinez. The trial court found in favor of Martinez on all the remaining employees' claims. The employees appealed.