Current law:
§213. Recreation or meal period
No minor shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work for any five-hour period without one interval of at least thirty minutes within such period for meals. If the period of work before the interval exceeds five hours by ten minutes or less, that difference shall be considered de minimis and shall not be considered a violation of this Section. Such interval shall not be included as part of the working hours of the day. This interval shall be thirty minutes. If the length of the meal break is at least twenty minutes, the difference between the actual break time and the required thirty-minute break time shall be considered de minimis, and shall not be considered a violation of this Section. The break shall be documented, using the employer's normal timekeeping system. If a minor fails to clock in or out for a work period or meal break, and a time edit is necessary, the time edit shall be documented and acknowledged in writing by the minor and the manager who performs the time edit.
So, sentence 1 says at least 30 minutes' break time is needed for any period of 5 hours.
Sentence 2 seems to say that if the period is 5 hours 10 minutes, some difference (what difference?) is ignorable.
Sentence 3 says the 30 minute break isn't part of the 5 hours. It's really a 4h 30m time period with a break--maybe at the beginning or end? But the interval, sentence 4, is 30 minutes. Unless it's at least 20 minutes, then 20 minutes and 30 minutes--what's the difference?
Note that the usual law requires 20 minutes. So maybe, maybe not, somebody who turns 18 next week needs a 30--or is it a 20?--minute break. So repealing the current law does not mean minors don't get a meal break if they work 5 hours, but adults do. That's a strange reading.
HB 156 disposes of the confusion and merges it with laws for non-minors. The entirety of the bill's text is
HB 156 Engrossed 2024 Regular Session Wilder
Abstract: Repeals the provision of law that provides for recreation or meal periods for
minors.
Present law requires an employer to provide at least one 30-minute meal period for minors
who work for a 5-hour work period. Present law does not require an employer to provide a
30-minute meal period in instances when the work period exceeds 5 hours by 10 minutes or
less.
Present law provides that an employer shall not be in violation of provisions of present law,
if he provides at least a 20-minute meal break.
Present law requires each meal period to be documented by using the employer's normal
timekeeping system. Present law further requires a manager, if a minor fails to clock in or
out for a work or meal period, to document any necessary time edits, which must be
acknowledged by the minor and the manager who performed the time edit.
Proposed law repeals present law.
(Repeals R.S. 23:213)
This seems a reasonable source for current status of
Louisiana child-labor laws otherwise.
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