If you choose to work through a meal period that your employer provides to you (read here to see what it means to provide a meal period), then can you claim meal period premium pay if you work through that meal period? NO. If an employer relinquishes control and relieves an employee from duty (without discouraging the employee from taking a meal period) the employer is no longer responsible for meal period premium pay. The employee is, however, owed compensation for the off-the-clock work performed and the time worked (including any overtime hours that result from working through the meal period), but only if the employer knows or has reason to know the employee is working during the meal period.