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Petitioners argue that section 119 applies to most of the
employees in question because petitioners require them to stay on
the premises during meal periods to handle emergencies which may
and do occur. Petitioners list the following happenings as
emergencies of their business: Plumbing and electrical problems,
backed-up hotel or restaurant lines, jackpot payouts, a surge in
gambling, equipment failures, bomb threats, and fires.
Petitioners argue that their management, through the exercise of
their business judgment, have concluded that the exigencies of
petitioners' business mandate that all employees in specified
categories remain on the premises during their full shifts in
order to respond to emergencies.
We disagree with petitioners that those employees must stay
on the premises to respond to emergencies that could occur during
their meal breaks. Unlike petitioners, who for this purpose
describe some fairly routine occurrences as emergencies, we read
the word "emergency" more narrowly to mean an "unexpected,
serious occurrence or situation urgently requiring prompt
action." Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary 427
(1994). The situations petitioners refer to as emergencies may
in the eyes of petitioners' management demand a quick response by
petitioners in order to keep their business profitable and
competitive, but all these happenings are not emergencies within
the meaning of the regulations. In any case, petitioners have
not shown that they are required to furnish free meals to their
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