Enabling California Rest Breaks

California state law requires employers to provide employees with 10 minute paid rest breaks when working a minimum number of hours. The number of rest breaks an employee is required to take is based on the total number of hours worked during the day with a minimum time of 210 minutes.

To help employers stay in compliance, the California Rest Break functionality in Bullhorn Time & Expense tracks the number of minutes an employee has been clocked in and, when the 210 minute threshold has been met, the employee is prompted upon punching out to answer if they have taken their mandated rest breaks.

California Rest Break functionality supports the following time entry methods:

  • Time Management Console (TMC)
  • Web Time Entry (WTE)
  • Tempo Clock
  • Virtual Time Clock (VTC)
  • Cloud Clock
  • Mobile Clock

Configuring California Rest Breaks

The configuration options that can be set in the database are similar to those for break exceptions. Below are the settings that can be updated appropriately when creating a rest breaks rule to drive behavior.

  1. Navigate to Maintenance > Administration.
  2. Select Rest Break Acceptance Configuration.
  3. Click Add a New Rule. Fill out the following information: 
    • Rule Name: Displayed in the TMC when turning on a rule.
    • Region: Allows for defining California as the region which can be set as a default using the next setting.
    • Use as Default for Regions: Can be set so that an employee who works within the state of California automatically gets the rest break rule.
    • Rest Break Exception Rule: Select the 210 or 211 minute rules which determines the threshold used to prompt for rest breaks.
    • Should an unanswered exception create a penalty: Drives the creation of a penalty if the rest break response is unanswered.
      • Example: An Admin entering a new transaction or employee never selects the response on the time clock so it times out and doesn’t record a response.
    • Auto Apply Penalties to Time Card: Allows for the creation of a penalty hour if the employee chooses an involuntary response.
    • Select Adjustment Code: Allows for selecting an adjustment used to apply penalties for involuntary exceptions if auto apply penalties is on.
    • Prompt Text: Text that can be configured typically as a question to the employee. Fro example, "Did you take all of your Legally mandated rest breaks?" Allows for language translations entry.
    • Resolution Options: Text options that can be configured to allow the employee or TMC administrator to resolve an exception as either voluntary or involuntary. Allows for language translations entry.

Assigning Rules

Rules can be assigned at the Clock Site level, State level or Group level. To update rules at the Group level contact Bullhorn Support.

Clock Site Settings

  1. In the TMC, navigate to Maintenance > Administration.
  2. Select the clock you want to apply California Rest Breaks to.
  3. Use the drop down menu to set Rest Break Exception to MW Break.
  4. Save.

State Level Settings

State Level is based on a rule configuration in the database to have a state (in this case California) set as the default state for the rule. This means that any employees who work in California will receive this rest breaks rules unless a different rule is explicitly set on their group or clock site.