A law requiring half-hour unpaid lunch breaks and time-and-a-half pay after 8 consecutive hours of work has long been a source of controversy between California employers and the left (the Democratic Congress and the labor unions themselves). Now, as California faces a nearly $15 billion budget deficit, employers and the GOP have brought up the debate once again. Employers maintain that the law is inconvenient and inflexible for both employers and employees, raise costs, and generally ?darkens the business climate.? Labor unions and the left see the law differently: as an essential workers? right, one that has been in place for years. Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation claims the debate is all about ?trying to help Wal-Mart and other big corporations get away from the long-established understanding that people should get a meal break at work.
See "Overtime pay, rest breaks become bargaining chips in state budget crisis", Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times, December 14, 2008