- Background knowledge
- Who is covered by San Francisco's Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinances?
- What are Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance Requirements and how can Deputy help?
Background knowledge
This article assumes you have read these general articles on Fair Workweek:
You can also find more information about San Francisco Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance (also known as Fair Work Week in other U.S. cities) here:
Note: If team members clock in and out using the Deputy Kiosk for iPad or Deputy Time Clock for Android, make sure these apps have been updated to the latest versions. Fair Workweek will only be supported on iOS Kiosk version 5.3.7 and Android Time Clock version 0.11.0 and beyond.
Who is covered by San Francisco Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance?
In order to be covered by these laws, a business must:
- Be a Formula Retail Establishment;
- Have at least 40 stores worldwide;
- Have at least 20 employees in San Francisco, including janitorial and security contractors
Please check the ordinances listed above for more information.
What are Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance Requirements and how can Deputy help?
Initial Estimate of Minimum Hours (aka Good Faith Estimate)
The initial estimate of minimum hours, is aimed at giving employees a set schedule that they can rely on. It must be provided to the employee at the time of hire. The initial estimate of minimum hours must include the expected minimum number of shifts per month that the employee will work, and the days and hours of those shifts.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows you to provide initial estimates of minimum hours to your team members through our regular working hours feature. Read more at:
Advanced notice for scheduling
Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance requires managers to provide employees with work schedules in advance. For San Francisco businesses, this has to be 14 days in advance of the work period.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows managers to schedule shifts well into the future - and when published, employees will always have access to their shifts, allowing them to plan ahead. Read more at:
Predictability pay for schedule changes
The law requires employers to pay their employees premium payments in addition to their normal wages for certain changes to the published work schedule. This is aimed at rewarding employees who are flexible, and as a disincentive to businesses for making last-minute changes.
For San Francisco, predictability pay is paid according to the following rules:
If hours are changed within 7 days from a shift, the employee is entitled to one additional hour of pay at their base rate per change.
If hours are changed within 24 hours from the shift, the employee is entitled to a varying amount of premium pay, depending on the length of the shift and how far it has been moved. See the ordinances and our pay rate page for more details.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy pay rates can take the stress out of manually calculating premium payments by automatically suggesting premiums based on changes made to the schedule, allowing direct export straight to your payroll provider.
This library rate is available in both premium and enterprise accounts in the pay rates section of your team member's profile.
For more information on exactly how this calculates premiums, see San Francisco Pay Rate.
Missed meal breaks
Employers of California employees must provide a 30-minute meal period for every 5 hours worked or major fraction thereof. If they fail to do so the employer must pay the Employee one extra hour of pay at the Employee’s regular hourly rate.
If the shift is greater than 5 but less than or equal to 6 hours, employees may waive the meal period. If waived, employees are not entitled to any penalty pay.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy provides two pay rates for San Francisco, one with the meal break waiver included, one without. It is the employer's responsibility to update the pay rates for each employee.
For employees without the meal break waiver, Deputy will ask an attestation question after they have worked five or more hours in a shift, asking if they have received all of their meal breaks. If they answer that they did not receive their breaks, and did not clock in for the required number of breaks, a meal break premium will be attached to their timesheet automatically. If they answer that they did receive their breaks, no premium will be attached.
For employees with the meal break waiver, Deputy will ask an attestation question after they have worked six or more hours in a shift, asking if they have received all of their meal breaks. If they answer that they did not receive their breaks, and did not clock in for the required number of breaks, a meal break premium will be attached to their timesheet automatically. If they answer that they did receive their breaks, no premium will be attached.
For more information see Break Attestations.
Access to hours
The Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance also states that available shifts must be offered to existing, qualified, part-time employees before hiring new ones. This allows part-time employees to become full-time if they wish.
Open shifts must be posted in writing and include:
- The shifts being offered
- Their length
- Their schedule
- The process employees must undergo to request picking up the new shifts
- The criteria the employer will use to distribute the shifts
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows managers to make open shifts that still require manager approval. We recommend using this feature to offer the shift to all participants, at which point the manager can decide on who fills it based on their own criteria (seniority, tenure, cost, etc).
We recommend posting these criteria and processes in the News Feed of Deputy so that all employees can see this, with a confirmation message so they can confirm they know the process.
Recordkeeping
Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinances require key information to be stored for several years that show compliance with the laws. This includes copies of good faith estimates, rosters, timesheets, consents to schedule changes, records of all schedule changes, records of predictability pay, clopenings and clopening pay, and proof that open shifts were offered to current employees.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy will electronically store most records saved in the system, and in the event of an audit can provide employers with a copy of their records on request. Employers may also create numerous reports within Deputy to provide to auditors.