Minami Tamaki LLP’s Consumer and Employee Rights Group is representing sleep technologists in their legal claims regarding the failure of their employers to provide legally mandated meal periods and rest periods.  

Sleep technologists, also called polysomnographic technologists, assist sleep specialists in documenting and analyzing sleep study patterns. A physician may refer a patient for a sleep study, which is an overnight visit to a sleep center to diagnose sleep disorders.  

Sleep technologists provide overnight care to these patients, often working shifts of 12 hours or longer. Sleep technologists monitor the breathing, movement, oxygen levels, and brain activity of patients throughout the night to determine what may be disrupting their sleep patterns.  

An individual sleep technologist is often required to monitor two to three patients at the same time. Minami Tamaki is representing sleep technologists who allege that they are regularly forced to monitor these patients throughout the night without being provided meal period or rest periods as required by law.  

California law states that an employer may not require a non-exempt employee to work for a 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 is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent. A second meal period of not less than 30 minutes is required if an employee works more than ten hours per day, except that if the total worked is no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived by mutual consent as long as the first meal period was not waived. Non-exempt employees are also entitled to a ten-minute rest break for every four hours worked, or major fraction thereof.

Minami Tamaki has extensive experience in litigation regarding the fundamental workplace right to receive meal periods and rest periods.  For more information on litigation regarding wage and hour claims on behalf of sleep technologists, you may contact Minami Tamaki Consumer and Employee Rights Group attorneys Sean Tamura-Sato and Lisa Mak online or call us at 415-788-9000.

*The contents of this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.  Information in this article may not constitute the most complete or up-to-date legal or other information.  Readers should contact a licensed California attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. Use of this website does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and Minami Tamaki LLP.