Can an employee stay on call during a rest break in California?
No. In Augustus v. ABM Security Services (2016) the California Supreme Court held that a rest period must be both duty-free and off-call. Requiring an employee to keep a radio or phone on and stay reachable defeats the break, and the employer owes one hour of premium pay for that workday.
Security guards were relieved of active duties during their ten-minute rest periods but had to keep their pagers and radios on and respond if called. The employer argued that being merely reachable is not the same as working.
The court disagreed on both halves of the question. A rest period must be free of duties, and it must also be free of employer control — and an employee who must monitor a device and interrupt the break on demand is under control even if the call never comes.
The remedy is the same premium that applies to meal periods: one additional hour of pay at the regular rate of compensation for each workday on which a compliant rest period was not provided. Meal and rest premiums are counted separately, so a single day can carry two.
Rest periods are also paid time and count as hours worked, which is why they are ten minutes on the clock rather than an unpaid interval like the meal period.
Sources
Last reviewed 2026-08-09. Informational only — not legal advice. California rules change; confirm against the current source before acting.