Sutter Health employees made headlines last week for requesting thousands of dollars in compensation after they missed breaks and worked through lunches at the health system's Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center. New testimony reported in the Sacramento Bee outlines what the nurses faced and the challenges of the case.
Here are six things to know.
1. The surgery center's employees are testifying during hearings at the California Labor Commissioner's office about being forced to work through lunch and miss contracted breaks. Pilar Tallent, RN, reported she requested premium pay for missing breaks and the surgical center director said, "Really? That's what you want? Really? You couldn't just eat at your desk?"
2. California law stipulates hourly employees, like Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center employees, receive a 10-minute break for every four hours worked and a 30-minute lunch within the first five hours of arriving; hourly employees that work a subsequent five hours in the same day are guaranteed a second 30-minute meal break.
However, the employees signed a meal and rest break waiver during orientation that states: "This will certify that at times the nature of the employee's work prevents the employees from being relieved of all duties during the employee's meal period. As a result on those occasions, the employee voluntarily wishes to waive the duty-free meal period provided by law, and instead work an on-duty meal period when the nature of the work prevents the employee from taking a duty-free meal period. The employee will not be paid for these on-duty meal periods."
3. The employees testified they had forgotten signing the waivers and had worked late-night shifts when there was not relief for meals or breaks.
4. Employees are able to revoke the waiver at any time; however the testifying employees had not made that request.
5. The employees said they didn't feel requesting the premium pay would affect scheduling or pay, and Sutter has added on-duty nurses to provide relief during breaks, according to The Bee.
6. Deputy Labor Commissioner Stephen Franck reportedly won't make a decision on the case until all cases are presented.
Editor's note: This article was updated May 10 to clarify that Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center is not a free-standing ASC.