Hospital Meal Break and Time Rounding Lawsuits: Who Qualifies and Recent Results

Automatic meal deductions

Many hospital timekeeping systems subtract 30 minutes from every shift over a set length for an unpaid meal. The problem is that nurses and techs often eat at the nurses' station, get called back to a patient, or skip the break entirely. Unless the worker cancels the deduction, the missed break goes unpaid.

Time rounding

Rounding changes actual punch times to a round number, often the nearest quarter hour. A worker who clocks in 7 minutes early to take report may be paid as if they arrived on time. Rounding is lawful under federal rules only if, over time, it does not result in failing to pay workers for all the time they actually worked. Claims arise when rounding consistently favors the employer.

Why hospitals

Patient care makes uninterrupted breaks hard to take, and early arrivals and late charting are routine. That combination makes health care one of the most common industries for these claims. Related overtime issues are covered on our unpaid overtime lawsuit page.

Providence (Washington)

Naomi Bennett, a certified nursing assistant, filed a class action in September 2021. Providence rounded punches to the nearest 15 minutes and automatically deducted 30 minutes for a meal period. The court found liability on summary judgment, and in January 2024 Judge Averil Rothrock found the violations willful. On April 18, 2024, a jury awarded about $90.3 million for missed second meal breaks and $9.3 million for rounding, less about $1.3 million for workers who waived second breaks. Doubled under state law and with interest, the judgment came to nearly $230 million. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed.

Onslow Memorial (North Carolina)

Nurse Denia Wilburn sued over meal breaks deducted even when overnight maternity unit staff had to stay on the unit. Judge Terrence Boyle preliminarily approved a $75,000 settlement for 32 workers in January 2026, paying one hour of pay for every two weeks worked, capped at $2,000 per person. Final approval is still required before payments.

Asante (Oregon)

In March 2026, nurse Juniper Arthurs filed a class action seeking about $2.5 million, alleging timecard manipulation, rounding, and unpaid missed breaks. The claims are unproven.

You may have a claim if you are an hourly, nonexempt worker and any of these happened regularly:

• Your pay was reduced by 30 minutes for a meal you missed, cut short, or spent on duty.
• You were told to stay on the unit, keep your phone or pager, or be available to patients during your break.
• You were discouraged from canceling the automatic deduction, or told it would look bad.
• You routinely clocked in early or out late, but your pay shows your scheduled hours.

State law can add more

In California, an employer that fails to provide a compliant meal period owes one additional hour of pay at the regular rate for each workday it happens. Washington law requires a second 30-minute meal period on longer shifts, which was the largest part of the Providence award. See California wage and hour lawsuits for more on California's rules.

Who probably does not qualify

Salaried exempt employees, workers who truly took uninterrupted breaks, and workers whose rounding sometimes helped and sometimes hurt in roughly equal measure are unlikely to recover much.

Individual amounts are usually modest per shift but add up over years and across thousands of workers.

Example

A nurse paid $45 an hour who loses a 30-minute break twice a week loses $45 a week, about $4,680 over two years. If those hours push the week over 40, they are owed at the overtime rate, and federal law adds an equal amount in liquidated damages. In the Providence case, more than 33,000 workers shared a judgment of nearly $230 million, an average of roughly $7,000 per worker, though actual shares depend on hours and shifts worked.

Smaller settlements pay less. The Onslow settlement caps each worker at $2,000. For how class funds are divided and how fees come out, see how class action money is divided and why payouts can be smaller than expected.

• 29 C.F.R. 785.19: a bona fide meal period is not work time only if the employee is completely relieved from duty. An employee who must perform any duties, active or inactive, while eating is not relieved.
• Labor Department Fact Sheet #53: if a health care worker's meals are interrupted so that the meal period is predominantly for the employer's benefit, the worker should be paid for the full 30 minutes.
• 29 C.F.R. 785.48(b): rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth, or quarter hour is accepted only if it averages out so workers are fully paid over time.
• Fair Labor Standards Act: unpaid time that creates overtime is owed at time and a half, plus liquidated damages.

California cases

In Donohue v. AMN Services (2021), the California Supreme Court held that employers cannot round meal period punches and that time records showing a missed, short, or late meal break create a rebuttable presumption of a violation. In Camp v. Home Depot, pending since review was granted in February 2023, the court will decide whether neutral rounding is allowed at all when exact punch times are recorded.

Automatic deduction cases are often filed as a class action under state law alongside a federal collective action. Employers often argue that whether each worker missed a break is too individual for a class, which is why unit policies and system-wide data matter.

Federal FLSA claims must be filed within 2 years of each short paycheck, or 3 years for willful violations. State law is often longer: Washington wage claims generally reach back 3 years, and California claims can reach back up to 4 years in some cases.

Each pay period starts its own clock, so older shifts drop off as time passes. If a class action is already pending against your employer, the statute of limitations for state class claims may be paused, but federal collective action claims are not preserved until you file a written consent to join.

You can often spot a problem with a simple comparison.

1. Pull a pay period of punches. Many timekeeping systems let employees view their actual punches. Write down each clock-in and clock-out.
2. Compare to paid hours. If you consistently clock in 5 to 7 minutes early and are paid from the scheduled start, the rounding is working against you.
3. Count missed or interrupted breaks. Note each shift where your 30 minutes was cut short, interrupted by a patient call, or skipped, and whether the deduction was canceled.
4. Check weekly totals. If the missing minutes push you over 40 hours in a week, the unpaid time is owed at overtime rates.

Seven minutes a shift over 200 shifts a year is more than 23 hours of unpaid time, which at $40 an hour is more than $900 a year for one worker, before any overtime or state penalties.

Travel and contract nurses

Staffing agency and travel nurses may be employed by the agency, the hospital, or both. Both may be responsible for unpaid time. Keep your agency contract, facility timekeeping records, and pay stubs from the agency.

Union members

If your job is covered by a union contract, the contract may set break rules and a grievance process. Federal and state wage rights generally still apply, but talk with your union representative and an attorney about which route to take.

What not to do

Do not alter your own punches to make up for rounding, and do not take confidential patient information to prove missed breaks. Your own notes, pay stubs, and copies of your time records are usually enough to start. If a manager asks you to sign a form saying you took breaks you did not take, you can decline or write what actually happened, and keep a copy. Complaining about pay is protected, and retaliation for raising it is illegal.

1. Log missed breaks. Each shift, note whether you got a full, uninterrupted 30 minutes, and why not.
2. Check your punches. Compare your actual clock-in and clock-out times to what you were paid.
3. Save policies that require you to stay on the unit or carry a device during breaks.
4. Use the cancel option for missed breaks if your employer has one, and keep proof when you do.
5. Do not sign a release or break attestation you disagree with.

Retaliating against workers who raise pay complaints is illegal. A free case review takes about two minutes and can connect you with independent attorneys who handle hospital wage cases. For contract nurses, see misclassification lawsuits.