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One worker is testing the state's Department of Labor and Industries' authority to enforce rest break laws.

It's devastating.

Infuriating, frustrating.

So many words.

That they refuse for whatever reason.

They say that it's not in their realm, but it is.

It's the law.

L&I should be the ones enforcing it.

Kest Judycki lost his job at Skillet after he spoke out about missing state mandated rest periods.

Even after winning a $10,000 settlement from the restaurant chain for retaliation, he says he's still waiting for L&I to act on his rest break com Reporter Lizz Giordano has more on this case.

A few months after Judycki began working at the Skillet location in South Lake Union, he said the company cut back on staff, resulting in workers missing breaks which he and others brought up to management.

And their response to that was to give us our breaks, but to cut back on our hours with the ultimate goal to take us off the schedule and not tell us about that until we were off.

After filing a complaint with L&I, he received a letter that said the agency didn't have the authority to cite an employer for violating rest break rules.

L&I then close the complaint.

Judycki eventually got help from Seattle University's worker law clinic, which offers free consultations for low-wage workers.

He's now on his third set of law students, which includes Sydney Smith.

They're arguing that L&I has the authority to act over mis breaks because ultimately it's violating minimum wage provisions if they aren't compensated.

That is a wage issue because the employer is getting 15 minutes of work that they are not supposed to be getting from their employee, and the employee is working for 15 minutes that they're not supposed to be working.

So it's free labor, which the employer should be compensating the employee for.

In March 2025, law students got L&I to reopen the complaint and add a retaliation charge.

It was about a month later that I got the... I got the call saying that they were looking into it.

You know, that finally I would get some sort of vindication, for the emotional distress that they put me through.

Just to take me off the schedule without even talking to me.

That's just not the way to treat people.

And that's why it's important to me that L&I investigates this, because I don't want other people to go through what I'm going through, and they are going through it, and they're going to continue going through it until L&I puts there foot down.

At one time, the Skillet Group had as many as five locations in the Seattle area; two remain open.

One here at the Seattle Center.

The other at SeaTac Airport.

The company has a history of wage theft allegations that result in settlements.

In December 2023, a City of Seattle investigation collected $318,000 for 181 workers.

And earlier this year, the owner settled a private class action suit with workers.

The amount has not yet been made public.

The company's owner, Greg Petrillo, said the company never agreed that Judycki was retaliated against, but that, quote, "L&I found otherwise and we complied with our judgment."

Petrillo also said in a statement to Cascade PBS that Judycki received meal break And L&I spokesperson said under current state law, they believe the agency doesn't have the authority to investigate or penalize companies for missed breaks.

Instead, they just work to resolve it through education outreach to the employer.

Even after receiving the retaliation settlement.

Judycki is determined to keep his case going to push L&I into enforcing rest break laws.

He says he's waiting on a formal decision from L&I so he can start the appeals process.

I got the settlement and I feel that I've got my money and.

But it's important to continue pursuing this with L&I so people don't get hurt.

There's nobody looking out for the little guy.

I'm Lizz Giordano, Cascade PBS.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching The Newsfeed Your destination for non profit Northwest News.

Go to CascadePBS.org for more.