The Court of Appeal in Pineda v. Bank of America held that "waiting time" penalties imposed under Lab. Code Section 203 are not a form of "wages" or property of the plaintiff. They are indeed penalties, unlike meal period penal- er - premiums. So, the court found, the plaintiffs could not seek waiting time penalties under the unfair competition law, Bus. Prof. Code section 17200. This is important because section 17200 carries with it a four-year statute of limitations.
A year or so ago, a superior court in another case made the extraordinary determination that waiting time penalties are wages, not penalties, and were recoverable under the UCL. So much for that argument.
The opinion in Pineda is here.