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Note: This feature actively rolling out across our product. To sign up for our early access program and to give guidance on what you would like to see, please fill in this form. |
- What is Fair Workweek (Secure Scheduling)?
- Who is covered by the Seattle Fair Workweek Law?
- What are Fair Work Week Requirements and how can Deputy help?
What is Fair Workweek (Secure Scheduling)?
Several large cities and one state in the U.S. have enacted Fair Workweek laws. The intent behind these laws is to provide shift workers with predictable, stable work schedules and protect workers from unfair scheduling practices.
These laws are complex and, in the event a business does not comply, they may be liable for substantial fines and penalties. Fortunately, Deputy is here to help businesses with tools to aid in compliance with the laws.
You can find more information here:
Deputy is actively developing more Fair Workweek related features.
To sign up for our Beta feature programs and to give guidance on what you would like to see, please fill in this form.
Who is covered by the Seattle Fair Workweek Ordinance?
In order to be covered by these laws, a business must be:
- In a retail, hospitality or food service establishment;
- Employ 500 or more employees worldwide who are primarily engaged in providing retail, hospitality or food services.
For guidance on whether your business’s employees are covered by these protections, please consult with the ordinances or the Seattle Office of Labor Standards.
What are Fair Work Week Requirements and how can Deputy help?
Good faith estimate
The good faith estimate 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, and an updated copy must be provided to the employee anytime there is a long-term change to the good faith estaimate. Also, the employee must consent before the good faith estimate is reduced by more than 15%.
The good faith estimate must include the days, times and locations that an employee can expect to work each week and the total number of hours per week they should expect to work.
It is not lawful for an employer to publish a work schedule that substantially varies from the good-faith estimate without the employee’s advance consent.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows you to provision good faith estimates through our regular working hours feature.
This allows you to proactively build in the good-faith estimate into Deputy, which you can then auto schedule in each week through only one click, and then make adjustments from there.
Deputy also provides warnings when employees are over or under-scheduled compared to their good faith estimate.
Note: We are actively improving our ability to display the regular schedule to employees. To sign up for our beta feature programs and to give guidance on what you would like to see, please fill in this form.
Advanced notice for scheduling
Fair Workweek requires managers to provide employees with work schedules in advance. For New York Fast Food 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.
Schedule change consent
Subject to limited exceptions, employers cannot add time to an employee’s schedule without their consent within 14 days from the start of the work period. Consent must be 100% voluntary.
This includes situations such as:
- adding time to a shift or
- changing the day, time or location of a shift or
- requests to stay more than 15 minutes late to cover rush or
- request to cover for another employee who called out sick.
Consent must be documented in writing, or electronically and must reference the specific shift they are consenting to change.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows the creation of Custom Shift Questions, that can be used to capture consent ahead of time for changed shifts, when an employee clocks in early or late, or to attest to missed meal and rest breaks. These get recorded in the timesheet for audit purposes.
If you have selected the Seattle Pay Rate, we automatically provide the following attestation questions:
- Unscheduled Shift
- Early In
- Early Out
- Late In
- Late Out
Employers can also proactively capture consent in the schedule by offering the shift to an employee for them to confirm. They can do this through the schedule.
Note: We are actively improving our ability to proactively manage and capture employee consent to schedule changes. To sign up for our beta feature programs and to give guidance on what you would like to see, please fill in this form.
Predictability pay for schedule changes
Fair Work Week laws require employees to be paid premium payments in addition to their normal wages for 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 Seattle, predictability pay is paid according to the following table:
|
Amount of notice (before first date on work schedule) |
Rate for additional hours (new or extended shift) |
Rate if no impact on total hours (without changing the total duration of the shift) |
Rate for reduced hours (shortened or removed shift) |
| Less than 14 days’ notice | 1x hour at Employee Base Rate | 1x hour at Employee Base Rate | The amount of hours reduced, payable at 0.5x the employees expected pay rate at the beginning of the shift. |
How can Deputy help?
Deputy pay rates can take the stress out of manually calculating premium payments by automatically calculating 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 Seattle Fair Workweek
Right to rest (Clopening)
"Clopening" shifts are shifts where an employee works late one night and then works early the next morning.
Seattle employees are required to have at least 10 hours of rest between shifts. Clopening shifts are banned unless the employee consents to work the shift and is paid extra pay called clopening pay.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy has 'Stress Profiles' that can allow you to trigger warnings that let you know when you are about to schedule a clopening shift, which you can then use as a warning to ask your employees for consent.
For more information and guidance on how to set these up, see Set up stress profiles.
Access to hours
Fair Work Week laws also state that available shifts must be offered to existing 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 are able to see this, with a confirmation message so they can confirm they know the process.
Recordkeeping
Fair Work Week requires key information to be stored for several years that show compliance with the Fair Work Week 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.
Note: We are actively improving our Fair Work Week Reporting Capabilities. To sign up for our early access programs and to give guidance on what you would like to see, please fill in this form.