My employer asked me Thursday if I could work during my lunch period on Friday since no one else would be in the office to cover me while I was out on lunch. She offered to pay me if I worked during my lunch. she buzzed my office phone to tell me all of this which kind of caught me off guard so I just said yes out of instinct. Friday came around and it was only me and a manager and warehouse workers. We ordered pizza for delivery to the office and ate as a group. I kept a cautious eye on the door and could see if any customers came by so I could attend them. Well nobody even came by during that period and we received zero phone calls so I actually got to enjoy my lunch. We typically take 1 hour lunches but our team lunch ended up lasting longer than expected (1.5 hours).
She called me to her office today and told me she got news that there was a pizza party on Friday and that I had completely gone behind her back and taken an uninterrupted lunch period instead of working through my lunch as we previously discussed. She wrote me up and literally said I failed to work during my lunch period as promised. I told her she could not legally force me to work during my lunch period and there are meal break premiums related to this. We are located in California FYI. I pissed her off and she played dumb and said she had never heard of this and laughed. She literally said “you seriously expect me to pay you an extra hour”
I'm furious. What can I do?? Again I am in California. I need help. I am planning on resigning but don't know if I should take proper steps before jumping ship.