Opinion ID: 844210
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Scope of the Employer Duty to Provide Meal Periods

Text: (23) We consider what it means for an employer to provide a nonexempt employee a meal period. Hohnbaum contends an employer is obligated to ensure that work stops for the required thirty minutes. Brinker, in a position adopted by the Court of Appeal, contends an employer is obligated only to make available meal periods, with no responsibility for whether they are taken. We conclude that under Wage Order No. 5 and Labor Code section 512, subdivision (a), an employer must relieve the employee of all duty for the designated period, but need not ensure that the employee does no work. (24) Historically, an employer's meal period obligations were governed solely by the language of the IWC's wage orders, and so we begin there. Under Wage Order No. 5, subdivision 11(A), [n]o employer shall employ any person for a work period of more than five (5) hours without a meal period of not less than 30 minutes . . . absent a mutual waiver in certain limited circumstances. The wage order employs no verb between without and a meal period (e.g., providing, requiring, offering, allowing, granting) to specify the nature of the employer's duty. Rather, the order identifies only the condition triggering the employer's duty (employment of any person for at least five hours) and the employee's concomitant entitlement (a meal period of at least 30 minutes). In the absence of a verb, the key language giving content to the employer's duty comes from the wage order's further definition of what an employee is to receive. Under Wage Order No. 5, subdivision 11(A), [u]nless the employee is relieved of all duty during a 30 minute meal period, the meal period shall be considered an `on duty' meal period and counted as time worked. An `on duty' meal period shall be permitted only when the nature of the work prevents an employee from being relieved of all duty and when by written agreement between the parties an on-the-job paid meal period is agreed to. The written agreement shall state that the employee may, in writing, revoke the agreement at any time. (25) Parsed, the order's text spells out the nature of on duty meal periods and the precise circumstances in which they are permitted. It follows that absent such circumstances, an employer is obligated to provide an off-duty meal period. The attributes of such off-duty meal periods are evident from the nature of their reciprocal, on duty meal periods. An on duty meal period is one in which an employee is not relieved of all duty for the entire 30-minute period. (Wage Order No. 5, subd. 11(A).) An off-duty meal period, therefore, is one in which the employee  is relieved of all duty during [the] 30 minute meal period. ( Ibid., italics added.) Absent circumstances permitting an on duty meal period, an employer's obligation is to provide an off-duty meal period: an uninterrupted 30-minute period during which the employee is relieved of all duty. The IWC's wage orders have long made a meal period's duty-free nature its defining characteristic. The 1943 version of the wage order governing restaurant employees first introduced the principle: No employer shall employ any woman or minor for a work period of more than five (5) hours without an allowance of not less than thirty (30) minutes for a meal. If during such meal period the employee can not be relieved of all duties and permitted to leave the premises, such meal period shall not be deducted from hours worked. (IWC wage order No. 5 NS, subd. 3(d) (June 28, 1943).) The 1947 wage order retained the duty-free concept, but more clearly specified the circumstances under which an employer would be excused from relieving an employee: An `on duty' meal period will be permitted only when the nature of the work prevents an employee from being relieved of all duty, and such `on duty' meal period shall be counted as hours worked without deduction from wages. (IWC wage order No. 5 R, subd. 10 (June 1, 1947).) In 1963, the operative language was amended almost to its current form (IWC wage order No. 5-63, subd. 11(a) (Aug. 30, 1963)), save for the requirement that on duty meals be agreed to in writing, which was added in 1976 (IWC wage order No. 5-76, subd. 11(A) (Oct. 18, 1976)). [14] As the IWC explained plainly in 1979: A `duty free' meal period is necessary for the welfare of employees. The section is sufficiently flexible to allow for situations where that is not possible, i.e., by establishing conditions for an on duty meal period. The Commission received no compelling evidence and concluded that there was no rationale to warrant any change in this section, the basic provisions of which date back more than 30 years. (IWC, Statement as to the Basis for Wage Order No. 5-80 (Sept. 7, 1979); accord, IWC, Statement as to the Basis for Wage Order No. 5-89 (Sept. 7, 1989); IWC statement of findings in support of 1976 wage order revisions (Aug. 13, 1976) p. 14.) (26) The DLSE's contemporaneous opinion letters reflect the same understanding. In 1988, the DLSE noted it has historically taken the position that unless employees are relieved of all duties and are free to leave the premises, the meal period is considered as `hours worked.' (Dept. Industrial Relations, DLSE Opn. Letter No. 1988.01.05 (Jan. 5, 1988) p. 1.) Three years later, in response to a question concerning employees working in the field free of direct supervision and control, it advised that if the employee has a reasonable opportunity to take the full thirty-minute period free of any duty, the employer has satisfied his or her obligation. The worker must be free to attend to any personal business he or she may choose during the unpaid meal period. (Dept. Industrial Relations, DLSE Opn. Letter No. 1991.06.03 (June 3, 1991) p. 1.) [15] As these opinion letters make clear, and as the DLSE argues in its amicus curiae brief, the wage order's meal period requirement is satisfied if the employee (1) has at least 30 minutes uninterrupted, (2) is free to leave the premises, and (3) is relieved of all duty for the entire period. (DLSE Opn. Letter No. 1988.01.05, supra, at p. 1; Dept. Industrial Relations, DLSE Opn. Letter No. 1996.07.12 (July 12, 1996) p. 1.) We agree with this DLSE interpretation of the wage order. (27) It was against this background that in 1999 the Legislature first regulated meal periods, previously the exclusive province of the IWC. New section 512 made meal periods a statutory as well as a wage order obligation: an employer must provid[e] the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes for workdays lasting more than five hours, and provide two meal periods for workdays in excess of 10 hours, subject to waiver in certain circumstances. (Former § 512, enacted by Stats. 1999, ch. 134, § 6, p. 1823.) [16] (28) The duty to provide meal periods is not further defined by section 512, but the nature of the duty is evident from surrounding indicia of legislative intent. As discussed, when the Legislature entered the field of meal break regulation in 1999, it entered an area where the IWC and DLSE had, over more than half a century, developed a settled sense of employers' meal break obligations. In such circumstances, we begin with the assumption the Legislature did not intend to upset existing rules, absent a clear expression of contrary intent. ( Industrial Welfare Com. v. Superior Court, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 734; see also Cal. Drive-in Restaurant Assn. v. Clark, supra, 22 Cal.2d at p. 292 [statutes should be construed insofar as possible to avoid implied repeal of wage orders].) Section 512's mandate that employers provid[e] 30-minute meal breaks can be read as shorthand for the requirement contemplated in subdivision 11 of most of the IWC's wage orders: Employers must afford employees uninterrupted half-hour periods in which they are relieved of any duty or employer control and are free to come and go as they please. Examination of the relevant legislative history confirms this reading. The origins of section 512 trace to the late 1990's, when the IWC amended five wage orders to abolish daily overtime, limiting overtime compensation to hours worked in excess of 40 per week, rather than hours worked in excess of eight per day, as had previously been the case. (See Johnson v. Arvin-Edison Water Storage Dist. (2009) 174 Cal.App.4th 729, 735 [95 Cal.Rptr.3d 53].) Troubled by this weakening of employee protections, the Legislature enacted the Eight-Hour-Day Restoration and Workplace Flexibility Act of 1999 (Stats. 1999, ch. 134, p. 1820, enacting Assem. Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.)), which restored daily overtime, nullified IWC-approved alternative workweek schedules, and directed the IWC to readopt conforming wage orders. (Sen. Rules Com., Off. of Sen. Floor Analyses, 3d reading analysis of Assem. Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as amended July 1, 1999, pp. 2-5; see also Stats. 1999, ch. 134, § 2, p. 1820; Assem. Conc. Sen. Amends. to Assem. Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as amended July 1, 1999, p. 6.) (29) As part of its response to the IWC's rollback of employee protections, the Legislature wrote into statute various guarantees that previously had been left to the IWC, including meal break guarantees. (§ 512, subd. (a).) The declared intent in enacting section 512 was not to revise existing meal period rules but to codify them in part. (See, e.g., Assem. Com. on Appropriations, Analysis of Assem. Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as amended Mar. 22, 1999, p. 3; Legis. Counsel's Dig., Assem. Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) 5 Stats. 1999, Summary Dig., p. 62.) It follows that the duty the Legislature intended to impose was the duty as it had existed under the IWC's wage orders. Thus, under what is now section 512, subdivision (a), as under Wage Order No. 5, an employer's obligation when providing a meal period is to relieve its employee of all duty for an uninterrupted 30-minute period. Hohnbaum contends that an employer has one additional obligation: to ensure that employees do no work during meal periods. He places principal reliance on a series of DLSE opinion letters. In 2001, in the course of discussing rest breaks, the DLSE distinguished an employer's meal break duties and observed that for meal breaks [an] employer has an affirmative obligation to ensure that workers are actually relieved of all duty, not performing any work, and free to leave the worksite. . . . (Dept. of Industrial Relations, DLSE Opn. Letter No. 2001.09.17, supra, p. 4, italics added.) In 2002, the DLSE reiterated the point: with regard to meal periods, an employer has an affirmative obligation to ensure that workers are actually relieved of all duty, not performing any work, and . . . free to leave the employer's premises. (Dept. of Industrial Relations, DLSE Opn. Letter No. 2002.01.28 (Jan. 28, 2002) p. 1, italics added; see also Dept. of Industrial Relations, DLSE Opn. Letter No. 2002.09.04 (Sept. 4, 2002) p. 2 [[A]s a general rule the required meal period must be an off-duty meal period, during which time the employee . . . is not suffered or permitted to work. . . .].) We are not persuaded. The difficulty with the view that an employer must ensure no work is donei.e., prohibit workis that it lacks any textual basis in the wage order or statute. While at one time the IWC's wage orders contained language clearly imposing on employers a duty to prevent their employees from working during meal periods, [17] we have found no order in the last half-century continuing that obligation. Indeed, the obligation to ensure employees do no work may in some instances be inconsistent with the fundamental employer obligations associated with a meal break: to relieve the employee of all duty and relinquish any employer control over the employee and how he or she spends the time. (See Morillion v. Royal Packing Co., supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 584-585 [explaining that voluntary work may occur while not subject to an employer's control, and its cessation may require the reassertion of employer control].) For support, Hohnbaum focuses on the phrase No employer shall employ any person [without the specified meal period] . . . (Wage Order No. 5, subd. (11)(A)), contending that employ includes permitting or suffering one to work, and so the employer is forbidden from permitting an employee to work during a meal break. Although Hohnbaum is entirely correct about the broad meaning the wage order gives the term employ (see Wage Order No. 5, subd. 2(E) [`Employ' means to engage, suffer, or permit to work.']), [18] his argument misconstrues the role that broad definition plays in the structure of subdivision 11(A). The provision identifies both an employer obligation (relieving employees of all duty for 30 minutes) and a condition precedent or trigger for that obligation. No employer shall employ is part of the definition of the trigger, not of the obligation. If an employer engages, suffers, or permits anyone to work for a full five hours, its meal break obligation is triggered. Employ relates to what must transpire during the five-hour work period; it does not relate to what must transpire next. (30) What must transpire after the meal break obligation is triggered is covered by later parts of the subdivision relating to waiver, on duty meal periods (and by negative implication off-duty meal periods), and premium pay. When someone is suffered or permitted to worki.e., employedfor five hours, an employer is put to a choice: it must (1) afford an off-duty meal period; (2) consent to a mutually agreed-upon waiver if one hour or less will end the shift; or (3) obtain written agreement to an on duty meal period if circumstances permit. Failure to do one of these will render the employer liable for premium pay. (§ 226.7, subd. (b); Wage Order No. 5, subd. 11(A), (B).) As earlier discussed, because the defining characteristic of on duty meal periods is failing to relieve an employee of duty, not simply suffering or permitting work to continue, it follows that off-duty meal periods are similarly defined by actually relieving an employee of all duty: doing so transforms what follows into an off-duty meal period, whether or not work continues. [19] (31) Proof an employer had knowledge of employees working through meal periods will not alone subject the employer to liability for premium pay; employees cannot manipulate the flexibility granted them by employers to use their breaks as they see fit to generate such liability. On the other hand, an employer may not undermine a formal policy of providing meal breaks by pressuring employees to perform their duties in ways that omit breaks. ( Cicairos v. Summit Logistics, Inc. (2005) 133 Cal.App.4th 949, 962-963 [35 Cal.Rptr.3d 243]; see also Jaimez v. Daiohs USA, Inc., supra, 181 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1304-1305 [proof of common scheduling policy that made taking breaks extremely difficult would show violation]; Dilts v. Penske Logistics, LLC (S.D.Cal. 2010) 267 F.R.D. 625, 638 [indicating informal anti-meal-break policy enforced through `ridicule' or `reprimand' would be illegal].) The wage orders and governing statute do not countenance an employer's exerting coercion against the taking of, creating incentives to forego, or otherwise encouraging the skipping of legally protected breaks. (32) To summarize: An employer's duty with respect to meal breaks under both section 512, subdivision (a) and Wage Order No. 5 is an obligation to provide a meal period to its employees. The employer satisfies this obligation if it relieves its employees of all duty, relinquishes control over their activities and permits them a reasonable opportunity to take an uninterrupted 30-minute break, and does not impede or discourage them from doing so. What will suffice may vary from industry to industry, and we cannot in the context of this class certification proceeding delineate the full range of approaches that in each instance might be sufficient to satisfy the law. On the other hand, the employer is not obligated to police meal breaks and ensure no work thereafter is performed. Bona fide relief from duty and the relinquishing of control satisfies the employer's obligations, and work by a relieved employee during a meal break does not thereby place the employer in violation of its obligations and create liability for premium pay under Wage Order No. 5, subdivision 11(B) and Labor Code section 226.7, subdivision (b).
(33) We turn to the question of timing. To determine whether the IWC or the Legislature intended to regulate meal period timing, we consider the language and history of both Labor Code section 512 and Wage Order No. 5. We conclude that, absent waiver, section 512 requires a first meal period no later than the end of an employee's fifth hour of work, and a second meal period no later than the end of an employee's 10th hour of work. We conclude further that, contrary to Hohnbaum's argument, Wage Order No. 5 does not impose additional timing requirements. We begin with the text of section 512, subdivision (a). On the subject of first meal periods, it provides: An employer may not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer and employee. This provision could be interpreted as requiring employers either to provide a meal break after no more than five hours of work in a day, absent waiver, or simply to provide a meal break at any point in scheduled shifts that exceed five hours. (34) The first interpretation is the correct one: the statute requires a first meal period no later than the start of an employee's sixth hour of work. Section 512, subdivision (b) resolves the ambiguity. It provides: Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the Industrial Welfare Commission may adopt a working condition order permitting a meal period to commence after six hours of work if the commission determines that the order is consistent with the health and welfare of the affected employees. The provision employs the language of timing: the IWC may adopt a rule permitting a meal period to commence after six hours, i.e., as late as six hours into a shift. ( Ibid., italics added.) By beginning with Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the provision further indicates that any such timing rule would otherwise contravene subdivision (a). Only if subdivision (a) was intended to ensure that a first meal period would commence sooner than six hours, after no more than five hours of work, would this be true. (See Assem. Republican Caucus, analysis of Sen. Bill No. 88 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as amended Aug. 10, 2000, p. 1 [prior to the addition of § 512, subd. (b), noting that [e]xisting law requires that the meal period begin no later than 5 hours after work begins].) Accordingly, first meal periods must start after no more than five hours. [20] We turn to the matter of second meal periods. Section 512, subdivision (a) provides in its second sentence: An employer may not employ an employee for a work period of more than 10 hours per day without providing the employee with a second meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total hours worked is no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived by mutual consent of the employer and the employee only if the first meal period was not waived. As with the first sentence of subdivision (a), this language is susceptible of two readings: it could be interpreted as requiring employers to provide a second meal break after no more than 10 hours of work in a day, absent waiver, or as simply requiring employers to provide at least two separate breaks at any point in scheduled shifts that exceed 10 hours. Significantly, however, the language is parallel to subdivision (a)'s first sentence. Hence, if the first sentence was intended to ensure a first meal period no more than five hours into a shift, as subdivision (b) reveals it was, it follows that the second, parallel, sentence should be read to require a second meal period after no more than 10 hours of work in a day, i.e., no later than what would be the start of the 11th hour of work, absent waiver. (35) Hohnbaum contends section 512 should be read as requiring as well a second meal period no later than five hours after the end of a first meal period if a shift is to continue. The text does not permit such a reading. It requires a second meal after no more than 10 hours of work; it does not add the caveat or less, if the first meal period occurs earlier than the end of five hours of work. Because the statutory text is conclusive, we need not consider extrinsic sources on this point. ( Beal Bank, SSB v. Arter & Hadden, LLP (2007) 42 Cal.4th 503, 507-508 [66 Cal.Rptr.3d 52, 167 P.3d 666].) The further issue is whether Wage Order No. 5 imposes any additional requirement. We agree with Brinker that it does not. (36) The IWC has long been understood to have the power to adopt requirements beyond those codified in statute. ( Industrial Welfare Com. v. Superior Court, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 733; Cal. Drive-in Restaurant Assn. v. Clark, supra, 22 Cal.2d at pp. 292-294; see also ante, at p. 1027.) Section 516 creates an exception; it bars the use of this power to diminish section 512's protections:  Except as provided in Section 512, the Industrial Welfare Commission may adopt or amend working condition orders with respect to break periods, meal periods, and days of rest for any workers in California consistent with the health and welfare of those workers. (Italics added). While the Legislature in section 516 generally preserved the IWC's authority to regulate break periods, it intended to prohibit the IWC from amending its wage orders in ways that conflict[] with [the] 30-minute meal period requirements in section 512. (Legis. Counsel's Dig., Sen. Bill No. 88 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) 6 Stats. 2000, Summary Dig., p. 212; see Bearden v. U.S. Borax, Inc. (2006) 138 Cal.App.4th 429, 438 [41 Cal.Rptr.3d 482].) In the absence of a conflict, however, the IWC may still augment the statutory framework with additional protections on matters not covered by section 512; that is, the Legislature did not intend to occupy the field of meal period regulation. (See, e.g., Sen. 3d reading analysis of Sen. Bill No. 88 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as amended Aug. 10, 2000, p. 5 [authorizing the IWC to regulate so long as the orders it adopts are consistent with § 512]; § 226.7 [imposing premium wages for violations of the IWC's meal period provisions, rather than § 512].) The text of Wage Order No. 5 is ambiguous. Subdivision 11(A) provides in relevant part: No employer shall employ any person for a work period of more than five (5) hours without a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that when a work period of not more than six (6) hours will complete the day's work the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of the employer and employee. This language may be read to mirror our interpretation of section 512: employees are due a first meal period after no more than five hours of work, a second meal period after no more than 10 hours, and so on. Alternatively, it may be read more restrictively, as allowing an employer to schedule no more than five hours of work between a first meal period and either another meal period or the end of the shift. Thus, for example, an employee given a meal period after three hours of work would become entitled after eight hours of work either to end the shift or to take a second meal period, even though 10 hours of work were not yet complete. [21] In the face of this textual ambiguity, we consider the relevant adoption history. (See Manriquez v. Gourley (2003) 105 Cal.App.4th 1227, 1235 [130 Cal.Rptr.2d 209].) Evidence in the historical record suggests the IWC's meal period language originally was intended to limit employees to five-hour work intervals without a meal. In 1943, the first version of the current language appeared: No employer shall employ any woman or minor for a work period of more than five (5) hours without an allowance of not less than thirty (30) minutes for a meal. (IWC wage order No. 5 NS, subd. 3(d) (June 28, 1943).) The provision's intended function was to ensure workers were not required to go too long without a meal break; the IWC found that it is necessary to insure a meal period after not more than 5 hours of work in order to protect the health of women and minors. (IWC meeting mins. (Feb. 5, 1943) p. 19; accord, IWC meeting mins. (Apr. 14, 1943) p. 6.) [22] At the time, this provision was understood to apply to the work intervals that conclude shifts, as well as those that begin shifts. In response to a request from a regulated store that, for shifts running from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., employees be permitted to lunch between 11:00 a.m. and noon, i.e., with six hours between the end of the meal period and the shift end, the IWC adopted an exception to the five-hour limit, allowing work periods of up to six hours at the end of shifts. (IWC wage order No. 5 NS, subd. 3(d) (June 28, 1943) [However, if the employee's work for the day will be completed within six (6) hours, such meal period need not be given.]; IWC meeting mins. (Jan. 29, 1943) p. 15; IWC meeting mins. (Feb. 5, 1943) p. 19.) In 1947, the IWC briefly departed from its original formulation, rewriting the timing requirement to apply only to the beginning of each work shift. (IWC wage order No. 5 R, subd. 10 (June 1, 1947) [No employee shall be required to work more than five (5) consecutive hours after reporting for work, without a meal period of not less than (30) minutes.].) In 1952, however, it returned to its previous approach, adopting language that has been carried forward to today without significant change. [23] (IWC wage order No. 5-52, subd. 11 (Aug. 1, 1952) [No employer shall employ any woman or minor for a work period of more than five (5) hours without a meal period of not less than thirty (30) minutes; except that when a work period of not more than six (6) hours will complete the day's work, the meal period may be waived.].) The IWC explained this revision was intended to expand the right to meal periods from a single break in the first five hours to one at least every five hours through the day: `The meal period provision was amended to permit a 6-hour work period without a meal when such a work shift would complete the day's work, [with] the additional provision that a meal period shall be every 5 hours rather than providing only one meal period within the first 5 hours.' (IWC meeting mins. (May 16, 1952) p. 33 [adopting summary of findings], italics added.) The IWC's descriptions of its meal period requirement in the ensuing years similarly reflected an understanding that work periods before and after meals were to be limited to five hours absent waiver. For example, the commission, discussing IWC wage order No. 12-63 (Aug. 30, 1963) (identically worded to Wage Order No. 5 save for a longer permissible period between meals), explained that the meal provision requires the employer to provide meal periods at intervals of no more than five and one-half hours within the work period. (Wage Board for IWC Wage Order No. 12Motion Picture Industry, Rep. & Recommendations (Oct. 21, 1966) p. 6; see also Margaret T. Miller, IWC executive officer, letter to Klaus Wehrenberg (July 13, 1982) p. 2 [under the IWC's wage orders, meal periods must be provided `at such intervals as will result in no employee working longer than five consecutive hours without an eating period'].) In 1999, however, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.), which among other things repudiated the IWC's actions in adopting a series of wage orders that had eliminated daily overtime. ( Harris v. Superior Court (2011) 53 Cal.4th 170, 177 [135 Cal.Rptr.3d 247, 266 P.3d 953]; ante, at p. 1037.) Assembly Bill No. 60 repealed five wage orders, including IWC wage order No. 5-98 (Jan. 1, 1998), and required the IWC to review its wage orders and readopt orders conforming to the Legislature's expressed intentions. (§ 517; Stats. 1999, ch. 134, § 21, p. 1829.) It also enacted section 512, which for the first time set out statutory meal period requirements. The IWC complied with the directive to adopt new wage orders. Pending completion of plenary review, it issued an interim wage order applicable to all industries, including those previously and subsequently covered by Wage Order No. 5. Notably, the interim order mirrored section 512's language, spelling out that a second meal period was required after 10 hours of work, rather than leaving the timing of second meal periods to implication, as previous wage orders generally had. (IWC interim wage order2000 (Mar. 1, 2000) subd. 9.) [24] The IWC also explained its intention that, absent waiver, employees were entitled to a thirty-minute meal period for every 5 hours of work  (IWC official notice, Summary of Interim Wage Order2000, italics added), a lesser requirement than the IWC's prior view that `a meal period shall be every 5 hours' (IWC meeting mins. (May 16, 1952) p. 33). From the text of the interim order and the official explanation, it is apparent the IWC intended a requirement parallel to that of the Legislature's section 512, with a second meal period due after 10 hours, rather than after an interval of no more than five hours following a first meal period. Thereafter, the IWC held public hearings and adopted revised wage orders for each industry, including the current version of Wage Order No. 5, wage order No. 5-2001. From our review of the text of the various wage orders, the IWC's official explanations of its intent behind these orders, and the transcripts of the IWC's numerous hearings, we conclude the IWC abandoned any requirement that work intervals be limited to five hours following the first meal break. With only limited exceptions, the IWC intended its 2001 wage orders to embrace section 512's meal period requirements, not impose different ones. Having borrowed the provisions of Assembly Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.), including section 512, for its interim wage order, the IWC simply copied the interim wage order's meal provision into most of its industry-specific wage orders. (IWC public hearing transcript (June 30, 2000) pp. 7-10 [explaining intent to mirror Assem. Bill No. 60 on meals]; see, e.g., IWC wage order No. 2-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001); IWC wage order No. 3-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001); IWC wage order No. 6-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001); Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, §§ 11020, subd. 11(A), (B), 11030, subd. 11(A), (B), 11060, subd. 11(A), (B).) The IWC explained that under these wage orders, first meals would continue to be assured for employees working for a period of more than five (5) hours, while second meal periods would now be provided in accordance with Labor Code § 512(a). (IWC, Statement as to the Basis (Jan. 1, 2001) p. 19; see also IWC summary of amends. to wage orders Nos. 1-13, 15 & 17 (Jan. 1, 2001) [except as specified in wage orders Nos. 4, 5 & 12, employees are entitled to a 30-minute meal period for every 5 hours of work].) Thus, as to the majority of its 2001 wage orders, the IWC did not intend to impose a different meal period requirement than that spelled out in section 512; specifically, it did not intend to require employers to provide employees a second meal period no more than five hours after a first meal period. These orders and the statute are congruent; under each, a first meal period is guaranteed after five hours of work, while a second meal period is required only after 10 hours of work. The IWC varied slightly the language of wage orders Nos. 4-2001 and 5-2001. These two orders retained the same subdivision 11(A) language requiring a meal period for every five hours, as in other wage orders, but they omitted the subdivision 11(B) language used elsewhere to define the conditions for receiving, and for waiving, a second meal period. As we shall explain, this omission was for reasons related to meal period waivers, not meal timing. The IWC did not intend in Wage Order No. 5 to depart from the timing requirements contained in other wage orders or section 512. The IWC had originally modified the meal waiver requirements in wage orders Nos. 4 and 5 in 1993, in response to a health care industry petition to permit its employees to waive a second meal period on longer shifts in order to leave earlier. (See IWC petn. 93-1 (Jan. 25, 1993) pp. 31-32; IWC wage order No. 4-89, subd. 11(C) (as amended Aug. 21, 1993); IWC wage order No. 5-89, subd. 11(C) (as amended Aug. 21, 1993); IWC, Statement as to the Basis of amends. to §§ 2, 3 & 11 of IWC wage order No. 5-89 (June 29, 1993).) The IWC later extended similar waiver rights to all employees covered by these wage orders and three others, but that extension was among many wage order changes repealed by the Legislature in 1999. (IWC, Statement as to the Basis, overtime and related issues (Apr. 11, 1997) pp. 7-8; Stats. 1999, ch. 134, § 21, p. 1829.) Thereafter, health care representatives persuaded the IWC to at least preserve expanded waiver rights for their industry, along the lines of those originally afforded in 1993. (See IWC, Statement as to the Basis (Jan. 1, 2001) pp. 19-20.) Accordingly, wage orders No. 4-2001 and No. 5-2001 each contain a provision absent from other wage orders, permitting health care employees to waive one of two meal periods on longer shifts. (IWC wage order No. 4-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001) (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11040, subd. 11(D)); Wage Order No. 5, subd. 11(D).) [25] Notably, the waiver provisions permit meal waivers even on shifts in excess of 12 hours and thus conflict with language in the standard subdivision regulating second meal periods in other wage orders that limits second meal waivers to shifts of 12 hours or less (see, e.g., IWC wage order No. 2-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001) (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11020, subd. 11(B))). For this reason, the IWC elected to omit that standard subdivision from these two wage orders. (See IWC, Statement as to the Basis (Jan. 1, 2001) pp. 19-20.) Because the omission related to waiver and was not the product of any intent to include different meal timing requirements in Wage Order No. 5, we interpret that order as imposing the same timing requirements as those in most of the IWC's other wage orders and in section 512. [26] Hohnbaum contends he does not seek to require earlier second meal periods than provided for by section 512 (and, as we have determined, by Wage Order No. 5); rather, he seeks only to interpret Wage Order No. 5, subdivision 11(A) as requiring that first meal periods be timed to prevent work periods, before or after, exceeding five hours. While we agree that the period before a first meal is limited to five hours (see § 512, subd. (a)), we cannot agree that the current version of Wage Order No. 5 limits to five hours the amount of work after a meal. (37) First, such a reading of subdivision 11(A) in the IWC's current wage orders would render the subdivision 11(B) guarantee of a second meal period after 10 hours of work, included in most of those same orders, superfluous. (See, e.g., IWC wage order No. 2-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001) (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11020, subd. 11(A), (B)).) We avoid such constructions whenever possible. ( Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control v. Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Bd. (2006) 40 Cal.4th 1, 14 [50 Cal.Rptr.3d 585, 145 P.3d 462].) [27] (38) Second, Hohnbaum's argument rests on the contention that as used by the IWC, `work period' is a term of art meaning `a continuing period of hours worked,' and thus the five-hour work period limit in subdivision 11(A) of the wage orders must preclude more than five hours of continuous work after a meal period. Work period is not defined in any wage order. If the IWC's wage orders once informally adhered to Hohnbaum's usage, its 2001 orders no longer do. Subdivision 11(B) in most of the current orders refers to a work period of more than ten (10) hours per day before a second meal period. (E.g., IWC wage order No. 1-2001 (Jan. 1, 2001) (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11010, subd. 11(B)).) Any such work period must have been broken by a first meal period and thus is not `a continuing period of hours worked.' Third, there is no evidence the IWC intended to supplement the requirements of section 512 in the fashion Hohnbaum suggests. The implication is to the contrary. Having received a legislative rebuke, the IWC sought to make its orders track Assembly Bill No. 60 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as closely as possible and expressed hesitance about departing from statutory requirements. (See, e.g., IWC public hearing transcript (May 5, 2000) pp. 52-56.) What departures it made appear to have been conscious choices, expressly identified in the IWC's statement as to the basis, and frequently justified by explicit reliance on its authority to augment the Labor Code. (See IWC, Statement as to the Basis (Jan. 1, 2001) pp. 19-20.) In contrast, the prospect of preserving any meal timing requirement previously implicit in Wage Order No. 5, beyond the requirements of section 512, was never discussed in the agency's 2000 hearings nor in its publications describing and explaining its 2001 wage orders. In the absence of any such discussion, we conclude the IWC did not intend to preserve Hohnbaum's posited requirement. [28] (39) Accordingly, we conclude that Wage Order No. 5 imposes no meal timing requirements beyond those in section 512. Under the wage order, as under the statute, an employer's obligation is to provide a first meal period after no more than five hours of work and a second meal period after no more than 10 hours of work.