California Judge Issues Tentative Ruling Dooming Meal And Rest Break Class Based On Brinker

On Tuesday, a California trial court judge in Los Angeles issued a tentative ruling denying class certification in a proposed meal and rest period class action relying on the Supreme Court's recent decision inBrinker. This appears to be the first court in California to deny class certification in a proposed wage-hour class action followingBrinker. If the tentative ruling is upheld, this may be a good signal for employers as to how courts will analyze class certification in meal and rest period cases followingBrinker.

The lawsuit alleged that a proposed class of engineers working on cellular telephone cites throughout California were allegedly misclassified as independent contractors and not provided with meal and rest periods. Plaintiffs sued Telecom Network Specialists ("TNS"), and a variety of staffing agencies who provided engineers to TNS were also named in the suit. Seyfarth Shaw represents one of the staffing agencies named in the suit and opposed class certification along with attorneys for TNS.

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