Some Washington healthcare employers will be subject to new rules for meal and rest break starting next year. Moving forward, under RCW 49.12.480, there are new hoops employers must jump through in order to secure waivers for certain meal and break time requirements, which means updates to handbook policies and the waiver form.
Under the current law, non-exempt hospital employees who are directly involved in patient care or clinic services may waive any meal break as long as it is voluntary and the waiver is provided in advance of the meal break. Effective January 1, 2026, meal breaks may be waived for any healthcare employee with a shift of less than eight hours. Employees with longer shifts may also waive their second or third meal break, but only if they already take at least one meal break during their shift.
The amendments preserve employees' ability to skip their meal and rest breaks in the event of an unforeseeable emergent circumstance, or clinical circumstance that may lead to a significant adverse effect on the patient, regardless of their shift length.
An employer and employee may also agree to relax the timing requirements of their meal and rest breaks. In these cases, the new meal break must still occur no earlier than the third hour worked and no later than the second to last hour scheduled.
The amendments provide some new flexibility that permits employees to combine any number of meal breaks with any number of rest breaks, provided the shift is eight hours or longer. When this occurs, the rest break portion will remain paid and meal break may remain unpaid in accordance with an employer's policies and/or collective bargaining agreement.
Waiver forms must satisfy several requirements and must:
- Be in writing or kept in a retrievable electronic recordkeeping format;
- Expressly state waivers are voluntary, may be revoked at any time, and cite the Washington Labor and Industries' rule governing meal and rest breaks;
- Cite any other rights employees may have under any applicable collective bargaining agreement provision;
- Be on a form agreed to by any applicable collective bargaining organization; and
- Be agreed to before the first shift that the employer and employee wish to rely on the waiver.
Since employees may also rescind their waivers at any time, employers should provide clear guidance on how employees should revoke their waiver.
Currently, covered hospitals must provide quarterly reports regarding the number of missed meal and rest breaks. The amendments add on to the quarterly reporting requirement, requiring covered hospitals to also track and report the number of waived meal and rest breaks (rest breaks cannot be waived entirely, only the timing of such breaks).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
