This article guides Deputy Enterprise customers who set up Fair Workweek before 2024. For customers setting up Fair Workweek in 2024, please instead read: Setting up Fair Workweek in Deputy - New York City Fast Food |
Please note that businesses are responsible for knowing and complying with current labor laws. The information here is not legal advice, and Deputy is not responsible for your organization's compliance. For complete details of these laws, click here.
**Important Note: This law was amended effective July 4, 2021. Deputy's pay rules do not yet accommodate the requirements of the amendments (such as just cause terminations, and 15% reduction in working hours), but Deputy is working hard to build new functionality that will do so in the near future.
Employers covered under the law
Fast food chains with 30 or more locations in the USA. This includes separately owned franchises if the total number of a franchise brand’s fast food establishments is greater than 30.
Workers covered under the law
Workers at fast-food establishments in NYC who perform at least one of the following functions:
- Customer service
- Cooking
- Food or drink preparation
- Off-site delivery
- Security
- Stocking supplies or equipment
- Cleaning
- Routine maintenance
Covered workers don’t necessarily have to be employed by the fast food company itself. Workers may be employees of the fast food restaurant, the owner, or another company or individual that provides services at the fast food establishment.
Note: Salaried exempt employees are not covered by the Fair Workweek Law.
Overview of the Law
Under the Fair Workweek Law, fast food employees have the right to the following:
1. Good Faith Estimate of Work Schedule
On or before a covered worker’s first day of employment, covered employers must provide a written good faith estimate of the schedule the employee can expect to work each week. The employer must also provide an updated good faith estimate if the worker’s actual hours differ from the estimate after 3 consecutive weeks, or 3 weeks in a 6-week period.
Good faith estimates must include:
- The number of hours a worker can expect to work each week
- Locations where a worker can expect to work;
- Days when a worker can expect to work at those locations; and
- Times that a worker can expect to work during those days.
How Deputy Accommodates
You can communicate and store the good faith estimate in a News Feed Post, and attach it as a PDF. When you require confirmation, the employee will be prompted to confirm that they have received it. Just go to the News Feed and Create a Post.
Additionally, to help you schedule to the team members' Good Faith Estimate, you can use Agreed Hours to simplify scheduling.
2. Advanced Notice of Work Schedules
Covered employers must provide new hires with their initial work schedule on or before the first day of work. After that, employers must provide work schedules at least 14 days before each schedule's first shift. Schedules must be posted in the workplace and may also be sent electronically to workers.
- Work schedules should include:
- All scheduled shifts for at least seven consecutive calendar days
- Locations where the worker is scheduled to work
- Dates when the worker is scheduled to work
- Start and end times of shifts
- Meal and rest break times for each shift
How Deputy Accommodates
Publishing Schedules
When you publish your schedule, you will be presented with ways to notify workers, including email and push notification. Once published, employees can see their schedules in a written way in their Deputy app, or at deputy.com.
Changing Schedules
If the schedule needs to be changed, publishing updates only will ensure that only the workers whose schedule has changed are notified of their new or changed shifts.
Shift History
All changes to shifts are recorded in the Shift History. When you double-click or edit a shift, look for Shift Actions at the bottom.
3. Predictability Pay for Schedule Changes
If an employer changes the work schedule after the 14-day notice period, that employer must update the posted schedule and must notify all affected workers within 24 hours. The employer must also pay predictability pay for all schedule changes within the 14-day notice period as follows:
Exceptions
No predictability pay is owed in the following circumstances:
- Operations cannot begin or continue because of, for example, threats to worker safety or employer property, public utility failure, natural disasters, severe weather, or shutdown of public transit
- The employee requests the schedule change in writing
- Two employees voluntarily swap shifts
- New shifts would require employer to pay overtime wages
- The employer changes a regular shift by 15 minutes or less
How Deputy Accommodates
Schedule Change Premiums are automatically applied when changes are made to shifts within the 14 day, 7 day, or 24 hour time frames. These premiums can be seen below in the Timesheets Section --> Export Timesheet, where applied schedule change premiums are shown below.
4. Priority to Work Newly Available Shifts
Before hiring new workers, covered fast food employers are required to offer available hours to existing workers. Covered employers can only hire new workers if no current workers accept the open shifts by the posted deadline.
Before you hire to fill new shifts:
Post available shift information, both at the worksite where the shifts have become available and by directly providing the information to workers electronically (app, SMS or email)
- Leave the notice of available hours posted for at least 3 days
- Give priority to work available shifts to workers at the worksite who have worked at least 8 hours within the past 30 days
- If workers at the worksite do not claim all available shifts, post the remaining available shifts to workers from other worksites
How Deputy Accommodates
Open Shifts
Open Shifts are up-for-grabs for anyone who is eligible to work them. Deputy will help you notify eligible employees of Open Shifts, so that they can be the first to pick them up.
5. Premiums for “Clopening” Shifts
"Clopening" refers to the act of closing the business one night and then opening it again the next morning. Covered employers may not schedule workers to work two shifts over two days with less than 11 hours between the shifts, unless the employer first does all of the following:
- Obtain the worker's written consent to work the shift
- Pay the worker a $100 premium to work the shift.
How Deputy Accommodates
Attestation
When Deputy identifies that fewer than 11 hours has passed between the end of a night shift, and the start of another shift the following morning, an attestation will appear on the screen. Workers can select “yes,” to indicate consent.
Attestation Message
“I consented to working a clopening shift.”
Deputy will automatically identify clopening shifts, and apply the $100 premium to that worker’s timesheet for that shift, regardless of how they answer the attestation question.