HR Alert

New York City Establishes General Provisions Governing Fair Work Practices

Certain Fast Food Employers Must Provide Advance Notice and Schedule Change Premiums

A new local law in New York City, aimed at improving working conditions related to employee work schedules, establishes general provisions governing fair work practices and places requirements on certain fast food employers. Highlights of the law are presented below.

General Posting and Recordkeeping Requirements
Under the local law|local law|local law ("Introduction Number 1396-A"), every employer generally must conspicuously post at any workplace or job site where any employee works certain notices that are applicable to the particular workplace or job site. Such notices must be in English and any language spoken as a primary language by at least 5% of employees at that location if the city has made the notice available in that language.

The city is expected to publish and make available such notices for employers to post in the workplace or at any job site informing employees of their rights protected under the law. Such notices are expected to be made available in a downloadable format on the city's website.

Additionally, employers generally must retain records documenting their compliance with the applicable requirements of the law for 3 years.

Advance Scheduling Requirements for Certain Fast Food Employers
No later than when a new fast food employee receives his or her first work schedule, a fast food employer must provide him or her with a good faith estimate in writing setting forth the number of hours a fast food employee can expect to work per week for the duration of the employee's employment and the expected dates, times, and locations of those hours. (Note: If a long-term or indefinite change is made to the good faith estimate, the fast food employer must provide an updated good faith estimate to the affected employee as soon as possible and before such employee receives the first work schedule following the change.)

A fast food employer also must provide a fast food employee with written notice of a work schedule containing regular shifts and on-call shifts on or before the employee's first day of work. For all subsequent work schedules, the fast food employer must provide such notice no later than 14 days before the first day of any new schedule. Such work schedule must span a period of no less than 7 days and contain all anticipated regular shifts and on-call shifts that the employee will work or will be required to be available to work during the work schedule.

Additionally, a fast food employer must (among other things) provide fast food employees with written notice of the work schedule as required above by posting the schedule in a conspicuous place at the workplace that is readily accessible and visible to all employees, and transmitting the work schedule to each fast food employee, including by electronic means, if such means are regularly used to communicate scheduling information.

Schedule Change Premium Requirements for Certain Fast Food Employers

A fast food employer generally must provide a fast food employee with certain schedule change premium amounts (section: 20-1222(a)), in addition to the employee's regular pay for shifts actually worked by the employee. The term "schedule change premium" means money that an employer pays to an employee as compensation for changes the employer makes to the employee's work schedule, including (among other things): canceling, shortening, or moving to another date and time shifts, including on-call shifts; and adding additional hours to shifts already scheduled. (Note: Such payment is not wages earned for work performed by that employee but rather is in addition to wages.)

A fast food employer must pay the schedule change premiums at such time as the employer pays an employee wages owed for work performed during that work week. Schedule change premium pay must be separately noted on a wage stub or other form of written documentation and provided to the employee for that pay period.

Effective Dates and Additional Information
The local law was enacted into law on May 30, 2017 and generally takes effect 180 days after it became law. Click here for more information, including details on additional requirements, effective dates, and the scope of coverage.

Note: This law is part of a package of legislation aimed at improving working conditions related to employee work schedules. Stay tuned for updates on additional laws.


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