Gerard

INTRODUCTION

Three health care workers sued their hospital employer in this putative class and private attorney general enforcement action for alleged Labor Code violations and related claims. In this appeal, their primary complaint is the hospital illegally allowed its health care employees to waive their second meal periods on shifts longer than 12 hours.

A statute requires two meal periods for shifts longer than 12 hours. But an order of the Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) authorizes employees in *1207 the health care industry to waive one of those two required meal periods on shifts longer than eight hours. The principal issue before us concerns the validity of the IWC order.

This is our second opinion in this case. Our first opinion concluded the IWC order is partially invalid to the extent it authorizes second meal break waivers on shifts over 12 hours and we reversed. (Gerard v. Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (Cal.App.).)

After the California Supreme Court granted the hospital’s petition for review in Gerard I, that court transferred the case back to this court with directions to vacate our decision and to reconsider the cause in light of the…