This Law Firm Publication by Ford & Harrison LLP discusses a decision by the California Court of Appeal which invalidated a longstanding exception in the health care industry that allowed for employees to waive a second daily required meal break when they worked shifts longer than twelve hours. On February 10, 2015, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, held in Gerard v. Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center that the employer should have provided a second meal break to employees who worked these extra-long shifts, as required under the California Labor Code. The court invalidated an exception to the meal break requirement which had been recognized in multiple wage orders issued by the now-defunct Industrial Wage Commission (IWC). To make matters worse for California employers in the health care industry who have relied on the exception, the decision will be applied retroactively, meaning employers who denied employees a daily second meal break will be subject to paying back wages and penalties going back up to four years.