Meal break waivers: request, sign, track

Under California Labor Code §512, an employee whose shift is 6 hours or less may voluntarily waive their 30-minute meal break by mutual consent. SafeShift records that consent as a signed document: you request it once from the Team page, the employee reviews and signs it on their phone or in the portal, and the signed waiver (name, time, IP address) becomes part of the compliance record. Once it is active, short shifts stop prompting that employee for a meal break and stop recording a missed-meal violation for one — the reminders and the compliance engine both read the waiver.

1. 1

   Request the waiver from the Team page

   Open Team, click the employee, and find the Meal Break Waiver (CA) card. Click Send Waiver Request. The employee needs a phone number on file. The card then shows *Waiver sent — waiting for employee to sign*. If the employee's recent shifts suggest the waiver could not lawfully apply (for example they regularly work over 6 hours), the card warns you — it never blocks the request, but the warning is kept with the record.

   

2. 2

   How the employee is told

   Three channels at once. A text message with a signing link goes to employees who have given SMS consent. A push notification goes to anyone with the app installed. And a Signature required card appears on their Compliance tab — in the mobile app and in the employee portal — until they sign. The card is on Compliance, not Documents: it is a consent record about breaks, so it lives next to their break history.

   

3. 3

   What the employee sees and signs

   On the Compliance tab the card reads *Signature required — your manager requested a meal break waiver*. Tapping Sign Waiver opens the waiver text: who is asking, the 6-hour rule, and that they can revoke at any time by telling their manager. They type their full name, tick *I have read this waiver and voluntarily agree*, and tap Sign Waiver. Employees without the app sign the same document from the text-message link in any browser. The app and portal screens are in Spanish when the employee's language is set to Spanish; the text-message signing page is in English.

   

4. 4

   Track it on the Team card

   The card reads *Waiver sent N days ago — waiting for employee to sign* until they sign, then Waiver signed with the date. Click Send signing link again if they lost the text or did not have the app yet — signing links stop working 30 days after the last send (the card turns amber and says so), and a resend refreshes the link, sends a new text and push, and makes the Sign Waiver card in their app work again. Withdraw request cancels an unsigned request; Signed on paper — mark on file records a paper or external waiver and withdraws the open request in one step (the withdrawn request stays on record, pointing at the waiver that replaced it); Remove waiver ends an active one. Every one of these keeps the row as evidence, never deleted. A link nobody signs lapses 30 days after the last send: the card then reads *lapsed* and offers a new request or the on-file box.

5. 5

   Chasing unsigned links from the Command Center

   Compliance → Command Center shows a *waiver links unsigned 7+ days* card for every signing link that has sat unsigned a week or more. Each line offers Resend link, Mark on file (they signed on paper) and Decline; with several open, Resend all and Decline all act on every line at once and report who was reached and who was skipped (no phone number, signed in the meantime). Above three requests the card folds to one line — Show opens it, and your choice is remembered on that browser; Open in Team → lists the same people on the Team page filtered to *Waiver: Pending*. Lines leave the card as soon as they are resent, recorded, declined, or lapse at 30 days.

6. 6

   Already have signed waivers? Back-fill them

   Moving from paper or from another system, you do not need to re-collect signatures. On the employee's Meal Break Waiver (CA) card tick Waiver on file. SafeShift records an active waiver immediately, dated today and marked *On file — recorded by <your name>* — no text or notification goes to the employee, and reminders and the compliance engine treat it exactly like an e-signed one. Then, optionally, click Upload PDF or photo under *Upload paper waiver scan* to attach the hard copy's scan or the digital form you already hold (PDF or image, up to 10 MB). It is stored securely with the record; View opens it and Remove takes the scan off while the waiver stays on file. Untick the box to end the waiver — the row is kept with its dates, never deleted.

   

7. 7

   Employee-initiated requests

   Employees can also start the request themselves from their Compliance tab (Request Meal Break Waiver): their ask shows on the Team row as *Asked for a waiver* until you click Send signing link (or Decline). An employee ask you never act on lapses after 14 days — send a fresh request if you want it after all.