California Break Complaints
“We don’t take breaks here,” a Mother’s Market manager told a worker
In August 2026, thirty-three former and current workers with Mother’s Market stores filed complaints with the California Department of Industrial Relations alleging wage theft by the company. Workers said that Mother’s Market did not allow them to take their mandatory rest breaks because they were too busy due to inadequate staffing, they feared discipline for taking breaks, and/or because they had been directed by a supervisor to not take the breaks.
In California, employers must authorize and permit non-exempt employees to take their mandatory rest breaks for every four hours of work. If workers miss, are late for, or are interrupted during a required meal or rest break, they are legally owed one additional hour of pay at their regular hourly rate for each workday that a violation occurs.
The violations at Mother’s Market total more than $45,000 owed.
Workers are taking action to solve workplace mismanagement at Mother’s Market:
Union supporters from the HEARTS UNITED Committee have been gathering outside Mother’s Market stores staging “Take a Break” events. The pop-up events educate workers about rest break laws and encourage them to take a break, while having a taco or a treat with co-workers.
Francisco Garcia, who works as a dishwasher at Mother’s Market Irvine, started at the grocery store a little more than one year ago. Early on, he asked the manager if he could take a break and was told, “we don’t take breaks here.”
“I’m looking for fair pay, respect, and dignity,” said Garcia.
Stephanie Hernandez, 25, has worked at the Juice Bar at Mother’s Market Signal Hill for nearly three years. Hernandez, who moved to Long Beach to attend Cal State, said the conditions at Mother’s discourage workers from taking their legally mandatory 10-minute breaks.
“I feel like with our campaign for a union, it has brought a lot of issues to light at the store – one being we’re not taking our 10’s. Each of us struggles with the pressure that’s put on us. We realize we deserve rest. It is so high-intensity and you feel a lot of pressure,” said Hernandez. She added that the workload is “constantly expanding,” but workers are never compensated for it.
“In fact, it’s the opposite, they add more work and then cut workers’ shifts,” she said. “We used to have better staffing.” For example, Hernandez said managers used to staff a juice bar morning shift, midday shift and evening shift, but about a year ago they eliminated the middle shift.
Such staffing levels make taking breaks hard.
But, Hernandez said, since the union drive launched, workers are standing up for their right to take breaks.
