Can your boss tell you to end your meal break early?

You work at a hardware store, where you are a cashier at the front desk. Every day, you take a lunch break, and you generally just sit in your car and eat a snack lunch outside of the store. If you finish eating before the 30 minutes are up, you just read a book in your car and wait to go back to work.

One day, when the hardware store is short-staffed, your boss comes out to the parking lot and finds you sitting in the car with a book. They tell you that if you’re done eating, you should just return to work. But it’s only been 20 minutes. Can your boss actually tell you that you have to end your lunch break early just because you’re done eating?

You deserve the full 30 minutes

No, your boss cannot legally do this. If you are at work for at least 5 hours, California law states that you deserve “no less than a thirty-minute meal period.” If it’s only been 20 minutes, you still deserve the 10-minute break before you have to return to your shift.

There are some situations in which an employee can waive a meal break or be on duty through the break. But this has to be set up in advance with a written agreement, and you, as the employee, always have the right to revoke that agreement.

Moreover, if your employer demands that you stay on the premises – such as returning to the front desk in the hardware store – during your meal break, then it has to be a paid break. The employer has deprived you of the ability to use that time on your own, so they must pay you for it.

If your boss does try to force you to return to work and violates your rights, then you need to know what legal steps to take.