By Kate Acheson
The Washington State Supreme Court found in Wash. State Nurses Ass’n v. Sacred Heart Med. Ctr., that employees were inadequately compensated for missing 15-minute breaks mandated by their Collective Bargaining Agreement when they worked over 40 hours in a week, because they were entitled to overtime pay for 10 of those minutes (the state-required break time).
The Washington State Nurses Association filed a grievance in 2004, against Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, for not consistently providing CBA-mandated 15-minute rest breaks, for every 4 hours worked. In 2006, an arbitrator resolved the dispute, in favor of WSNA, ordering Sacred Heart to give rest periods and compensating nurses who missed 15-mintue break times in the past, with 30 minutes of regular compensation, without interest. After that, nurses who could not take a rest period completed a missed break form and were compensated for 15 minutes of regular time for the missed break regardless of whether that missed break time put them over the 40 hour per week overtime threshold.
Despite the arbitration ruling finding that straight time remedy was appropriate, the WSNA sued on behalf of its nurses, ontending that ten of the fifteen minutes of missed break should have counted as overtime. It argued that Washington regulation (WAC 296-126-092(4)) requires a 10-minute rest period for every four hours worked. Citing the Supreme Court’s discision in Wingert v. Yellow Freight Systems, Inc. – that working through a mandatory break effectively extends the workday and can be counted as overtime – WSNA contended that ten minutes of every missed break pushing nurses over their regular 40-hour-a-week schedule constituted “hours worked” and should have been compensated at the overtime rate of time-and-one-half under the Minimum Wage Act (RCW 49.46.130), not the straight time rate that they had received.
The State Supreme Court agreed with the WSNA, finding that:
[b]ased on our decision in Wingert, on the statutes and regulations governing overtime compensation and rest breaks, and on considerations of employee health and patient care, we hold that the nurses are entitled to overtime compensation for the first 10 minutes of each break they missed.
The Court then rejected the “double damages” granted by the trial court. The Washington MWA requires “double damages” for all “willful violations.” The Supreme Court found the award of double damages to WSNA was improper because there was insufficient evidence to show Sacred Heart acted “[w]illfully.” The court noted under the State wage law, an employer does not “willfully” violate the law where there is a “bona fide dispute” — “a ‘fairly debatable’ dispute over whether all or a portion of wages must be paid.” It then concluded that the Hospital was simply following the arbitrator’s ruling on the terms of a CBA when compensating employees, which had not required overtime compensation for the missed breaks.
