Background
In many Fair Workweek regions, employees have the right to decline certain schedule arrangements or shift changes. If employees agree to work such shifts, they may be eligible to receive pay premiums on top of their regular pay.
For more information on which scheduling scenarios trigger consent or pay premiums consult the region-specific Setting up Fair Workweek in Deputy guides.
Deputy's Fair Workweek scheduling feature will alert the scheduling manager each time consent or pay premiums have been triggered. However, since there are some circumstances where consent or pay premiums are not applicable, there is also a feature to override these consent and / or pay premium triggers on a shift-by-shift basis.
Please ensure you have read How to schedule with Fair Workweek consent enabled before using this override feature.
Why would you need to override consent or pay premiums?
I there are valid reasons why a Fair Workweek schedule change may not legally require Consent and/or Predictability Pay. They include employee-initiated changes, such as a team member calling in sick at the last minute, and also situational/environmental reasons outside of a business’s control such as inclement weather or public transport failure.
Note: You can read more about these reasons by clicking on the relevant FWW region in our Setting up FWW guides and reading the "Background" section, where there are links to the legislation documentation in that region.
In these cases, the schedule override feature in Deputy helps managers respond to changes that are employee-requested or outside of the business's control and keep the schedule up to date.
Let's look at some example scenarios where you might need to override consent and pay premiums:
I need to add a new shift at short notice for a legally valid reason
If you need to add a new shift to the schedule within the time period (varies between FWW regions) that would normally trigger consent and/or pay premiums but you are adding it for a reason that is legally allowable to exempt you from requesting consent and / or pay premiums then you can use this method.
Example: Lauren usually works on Mondays but has asked her manager Camilla if, just this week, she can work on Thursday instead. Camilla decides to fill Lauren's original Monday shift with another team member and creates a new shift on the Thursday. Since Lauren requested this shift, the organisation isn't required to obtain consent or pay a premium for scheduling the shift at short notice so Camilla can override the consent in the schedule.
1. A new shift is added to the schedule and the scheduling manager is warned that adding this shift will require the team member to accept or decline the request and pay premiums may be incurred.
Since the manager knows that the team member asked to work they will will override these by clicking on the ... three dots icon next to Save.
2. Select Override from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut Shift+O.
3. Select Save and override, enter a reason to explain why you are overriding the shift consent (mandatory field) and click Save and override.
Note: this action will publish the shift automatically and the team member will receive an email (and push notification if logged into the Deputy mobile app) notifying them of the new shift but they will not be asked to consent to the new shift. The manager's reason for adding the shift will not be sent in the message to the team member but can be retrieved using reporting if required for compliance reasons.
The shift will display with a triangle warning icon and if you open it you can see that consent and premiums were overridden. Want to know more about the shift override history?
I need to change an existing shift at short notice for a legally valid reason
If you need to change a shift in the schedule within the time period (varies between FWW regions) that would normally trigger consent and/or pay premiums but you are changing it for a reason that is legally allowable to exempt you from requesting consent and / or pay premiums then you can use this method.
Example: Tarron was scheduled to work in a restaurant tonight from 3pm - 11pm. However the city has lost power unexpectedly and the restaurant has to close early. Camilla, Tarron's manager has indicated Tarron's shift will now end earlier, at 6pm. Since this change in the schedule was due to a failure in public utility the business will not be required to obtain consent or pay a premium for changing the scheduling at short notice and Camilla can override the consent in the schedule when she makes the change.
1. The manager opens the shift and changes the end time from 11pm to 6pm which triggers a warning that the team member will be asked to accept or decline changes.
Since the manager knows they don't have to request consent to make the changes to the shift in these circumstances they will override this warning by clicking on the ... three dots icon next to Save and Publish.
2. Select Override from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut Shift+O.
3. Select Save and override, enter a reason to explain why you are overriding the shift consent(mandatory field) and click Save and override.
Note: this action will publish the shift automatically and the team member will receive an email (and push notification if logged into the Deputy mobile app) notifying them of the new shift time but they will not be asked to consent to the new shift. The manager's reason for changing the shift will not be sent in the message to the team member but can be retrieved using reporting if required for compliance reasons.
The shift will display with a triangle warning icon and if you open it you can see that consent and premiums were overridden. Want to know more about the shift override history?
I need to delete a shift at short notice for a legally valid reason
If you need to delete a shift in the schedule within the time period (varies between FWW regions) that would normally trigger consent and/or pay premiums but you are deleting it for a reason that is legally allowable to exempt you from requesting consent and / or pay premiums then you can use this method.
Example: Sam was scheduled to work in a restaurant tomorrow from 9pm - 5pm. However, heavy snowfall has meant that the city is closed, restaurant won't open and the manager needs to delete Sam's shift. Since this change in the schedule was due to a natural disaster the business will not be required to obtain consent or pay a premium for deleting the shift at short notice and the manager can override the consent in the schedule.
1. The manager opens the shift that need to be removed and click on the ... three dots icon next to Save.
DO NOT click Delete shift in this instance, since that will trigger consent and possible pay premiums.
Instead, since the manager knows they can override the request to delete the shift then the manager should instead click Override.
2. Select Delete and override, enter a reason to explain why you are overriding the delete consent(mandatory field) and click Delete and override.
Note: this action will delete the shift automatically and the team member will receive an email (and push notification if logged into the Deputy mobile app) notifying them that the shift has been deleted (but they will not be asked to consent). The manager's reason for deleting the shift will not be sent in the message to the team member but can be retrieved using reporting if required for compliance reasons.
Overrides captured in Reporting
The reasons that mangers enter when overriding consent when adding, changing or deleting shifts can be tracked using the Schedule change audit report.
1. On the Report tab in Deputy, scroll down to the Schedule change audit report and click Create report (or select View Reports and then click on the Create report button on the top right.)
2. Add a report name, select a date range, choose whether to filter by location or employee select which locations or employees to include in your report then click Create.
A CSV file will download to your computer where you can see details about the shift changes including:
- which manager made the change that triggered consent
- whether consent was overriden
- the reason given by the manager
See more about what data is contained in the Schedule change audit report.