Explained: Seattle Fair Workweek Regulations

Fair Workweek regulations are coming into force across the nation. These ‘predictive scheduling’ laws, also known as the Secure Scheduling Ordinance in Seattle, aim to promote flexibility for shift workers and protect against unfair scheduling practices.

The rules are complex and fines for violations are heavy.

For full-service restaurants and fast food operators in Seattle with more than 500 employees worldwide this means, among other headaches, that shifts must be planned two weeks in advance and records must be immaculate to avoid costly fines.

Earlier this year, Mexican restaurant chain Qdoba, which has three locations in Seattle employing 47 employees, paid a settlement of over $96,000 over allegations brought under the Secure Scheduling Ordinance. The Office of Labor Standards alleged that Qdoba had failed to provide premium pay for work schedule changes or ‘clopening’ shifts separated by less than ten hours. 

The fact these regulations vary significantly state-by-state makes it all the more difficult for restaurant groups who operate across multiple cities.

Many operators have put dedicated finance teams in place to identify violations and deal with penalties to ensure compliance. But this approach deals with the symptoms of the problem rather than the cause. 

What is needed is a holistic solution that tackles the root cause while also mitigating risks throughout the business, enabling all departments to consistently and proactively work together. 

Giving managers the power to use predictive scheduling effectively, minimizes violations and pushes any violation data straight to payroll to be dealt with in accordance with the law.

The result is greater efficiency and less stress for managers, more flexibility and protection for employees, and better results for the business – not only in terms of happy workers but in costs saved and embarrassment avoided.

Let’s take a look at the rules and penalties for Seattle and then how Harri’s system deals with the many challenges they pose to restaurant operators in the city.

Regulations and Penalties for Seattle

Good Faith Estimate

The employer must provide the new hire with a written Good Faith Estimate of their work schedule at the time of hire. The good faith estimate should include:

• Support for multiple languages or be sent in the employee’s language.
• The name of the employer, plus any trading names.
• The employer’s address, telephone number and email address (if applicable).
• The employee’s rate of pay and overtime rate (if applicable).
• A full explanation of the tip policy.
• Details of the basis of pay (ie. hourly, per shift, commissions etc.)
• Details of the employee’s pay day.

In addition, the employer must provide a written forecast for the upcoming year of the employee’s median hours per workweek and whether to expect on-call shifts.

This estimate is to be revisited once each year or when there is a significant change in employee availability or employer needs.

Right to Rest

Employers must schedule at least 10 hours between shifts.

• Shifts separated by less than 10 hours are paid 1.5x the employee’s hourly rate, even if the employee requests or consents to those hours.
• Split shifts are allowed as long as the rest period is 10 hours between work days.

Advanced Notice on Scheduling

Employees must be given the schedule 14 days in advance, for both regular and on-call shifts. 

• The employer must post the written work schedule in a conspicuous and accessible location, in English and in the primary languages of the employees of that particular workplace.
• The employee may decline to work any hours not included in their work schedule.

Penalties for Changes to the Date or Time of a Work Shift 

1. No change in the number of hours:
   • Pay one hour at the employee’s scheduled rate of pay.
2. Additional hours:
   • Pay one hour at the employee’s scheduled rate of pay.
3.  Subtracted hours:
   • No less than half the scheduled rate of pay for the hours that were subtracted.

Grace Period

• Adding or subtracting 15 mins does not incur additional compensation.
• Any employee working past their scheduled shift must be paid extra if they work longer than the grace period of 15 minutes.

On-Call Protection

The employee must be paid half their rate of pay for on-call hours scheduled if the employer: 

• Subtracts hours from a regular work shift before or after the employee reports for duty. 
• Changes the date, start or end time of a work shift resulting in a loss of hours.
• Cancels a work shift.
• Schedules the employee for an on-call shift for which the employee does not need to report to work.

Access to Hours for Existing Employees

Employers must offer additional hours to current employees before hiring new employees (in English and other relevant languages).

Exceptions

The employer is not liable to pay extra wages under the below conditions:

• Shift swaps arranged between employees.
• Additional hours are advertised via a mass-communication (although the employee can decline them).
• Additional hours are communicated in-person during a shift, due to unanticipated demand (as long as the employee gives consent).
• Subtracted/added hours based on an employee’s written request.
• Subtracted hours due to disciplinary reasons (documented by the employer).
• Shifts cancelled due to operational reasons outside the employers control such as public utility failures, natural disasters etc.

Harri’s Intelligent Scheduling 

Harri’s intelligent scheduling system automatically keeps operators up-to-date with regulations, even across multiple jurisdictions. It helps you not only to actively comply with regulations, but also to use predictive scheduling to improve your business.

Here’s a rundown of the main features.

Good Faith Scheduling Support

The system includes the following features to make employees aware of the Good Faith Schedule during onboarding:

• The automatically generated Good Faith Estimate document provides new hires with a clear schedule in accordance with the local laws.
• This is seamlessly integrated into the onboarding process for review and e-signature by the new hire. 

Direct Shift Swaps

Harri’s Hot Fill system allows employees to exchange shifts directly without employer involvement. The peer-to-peer shift exchange does not violate the above rules on shift swaps based on pay rate and overtime thereby avoiding late-change penalties.

Hot Fill – “Uber for your employees”

Here’s how it works:

1. An employee is unable to attend work and they release the shift.
2. Other employees have indicated they wish to work on that day if a shift becomes available (note, they are not “on-call”).
3. The system alerts these employees via SMS and push notification. 
4. The first employee to accept gets the shift. 
5. The manager on duty is notified of the employee’s ETA and distance from work.

This system offers more flexibility for employees and makes it far easier for managers to oversee a shift swap, all while avoiding costly late-change penalties.

Calculation of Right to Rest Compensation Payment

The Right to Rest regulation ensures employees adequate rest between shifts. Harri helps managers to comply by alerting them if this rule is violated when the schedule is created, or any time after it is created, so they can proactively make changes to the schedule.

Manager Alert for Penalties Related to Schedule Changes 

Managers have the ability to define compensation rules for changes after the advance notice period. Shift change premium pay is indicated on the schedule itself and included in the total wage cost calculations.

This means managers are fully aware of the cost impact of schedule changes before they put them in place so they are able to plan and make strategic decisions accordingly. It also makes it easy for the finance department to calculate the costs and pay the right amount to the employee.

Predictive Scheduling Premium Reporting

This feature provides managers with reports indicating, in detail, all the premium payments resulting from schedule changes. These can then be passed seamlessly to the finance department where they can be processed.

They can also be analyzed and scrutinized by management so that key decisions can be made on the company-wide scheduling policy to avoid future fines.

Make Sure Your Business is Protected

The best way to ensure compliance, at scale and across states and cities, is to use a holistic system designed for the purpose.

Harri’s smart scheduling tools simplify every stage of the process, dealing with the cause of the problem in order to minimize violations and streamline communication between departments, managers, and employees.

To see how you can use the system to protect your business and lead a happy, better-rested team, get started with Harri’s smart scheduling tools.