Metrolink contractor lobbied for delays in meal breaks - By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times
Five months ago, state lawmakers rejected legislation pushed by Veolia Transportation that would have allowed meal breaks for transportation workers to be delayed until nearly the seventh hour of a work shift. The current rules require at least a half-hour meal break at the start of the fifth hour of a shift that lasts more than five hours.
The company disputes whether the proposed rule change would have applied to Metrolink, but said it would have applied to its employees who drive mass transit buses.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the Metrolink engineer, an employee of Veolia, missed signal lights because he was fatigued by working back-to-back split shifts that began before dawn and ended at 9 p.m.