The following excerpt is from Gomez v. J. Jacobo Farm Labor Contractor, CASE NO. 1:15-cv-01489-AWI-BAM (E.D. Cal. 2019):
593 (D. Kan. 2012) (stating that where the evidence showed that the employer did not require the entire class of employees to skip rest breaks "all the time or even on a consistent basis," and where the evidence showed that "the occasions when employees missed rest periods were sporadic," "[i]t is impossible to determine, then at least on a class-wide representative basis when or whether employees missed their rest periods") (dealing with California wage-and-hour laws); Cortez v. Best Buy Stores, LP, Case No. 11-cv-5053, 2012 WL 255345, at *4 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 25, 2012) (stating that where the failure to provide rest breaks was not universal to the entire class, and where there are not time records of employees taking rest breaks, "[t]he only apparent way to determine if an employee was denied a rest period (and to determine how many rest periods that employee was denied) would be to make an individualized inquiry of each hourly employee."). Here these individualized questions will be particularly laborious because it appears that Defendant did not keep records documenting either the length of the employees' shifts or the identity of the forepersons under whom the employees worked each particular shift.
The above passage should not be considered legal advice. Reliable answers to complex legal questions require comprehensive research memos. To learn more visit www.alexi.com.