What is One Day’s Rest in Seven?
Most non-exempt employees in the state of California are entitled to one day off every workweek, and any employer who refuses to give employees at least one day rest in seven may face legal action. As a California employee, understanding state and federal laws governing mandatory rest days for workers are imperative, as these laws dictate how your employer can legally schedule you during the workweek and how often you are entitled to a day off. For more information about California’s day of rest requirements, contact our experienced California employment law attorney at Davtyan Law Firm today.
Understanding California’s “Day of Rest” Law
The state of California has a wage and hour law in place that in its original wording said: “no employer of labor shall cause his employees to work more than six days in seven” (Labor Code § 551). This law was further clarified in 2017 by the California Supreme Court, which ruled that the required day of rest must be given in a workweek, rather than on a rolling basis for any consecutive seven-day period of work. What this means is, if an employer’s scheduled workweek runs from Sunday to Saturday, an employee can be scheduled to work every day from Monday to the following Friday, even though that is more than seven consecutive days of work. So long as the employee has the previous Sunday off and the following Saturday off, the “one day rest in seven” requirement is considered fulfilled.
There are some exceptions to California’s day of rest requirement for employees. According to the law, employers aren’t required to give employees a day of rest if their “total hours of employment do not exceed 30 hours in any week or six hours in any one day thereof.” This means that part-time employees who work 30 hours or less in a single workweek, or six hours or less in a single workday, are not covered under the day of rest requirement. However, if on any one day, this part-time employee works more than six hours, the employee must get a day off during that workweek, or the employee’s right to a day of rest has been violated. There is also an exception for emergencies, which allows seven consecutive days of work if “the nature of the employment reasonably requires that the employee work seven or more consecutive days,” but only if “in each calendar month the employee receives days of rest equivalent to one day rest in seven.”
Contact Our CA Employment Law Attorneys
California labor laws were established to protect employees from illegal labor practices and these laws offer legal recourse to nonexempt employees who are prevented from taking a day of rest during the workweek. It is considered unlawful for an employer to force, require, implicitly, or explicitly encourage, or take any kind of action to motivate employees to forego the day of rest they are legally entitled to. If your employer has prevented you from taking one day’s rest in seven, do not hesitate to protect your legal rights. Contact Davtyan Law Firm today to discuss your case with a knowledgeable California wage and hour attorney.
