Researcher: JM Page 1 5/19/21
OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 668 (File 398, as amended by Senate "A")*
AN ACT CONCERNING A FAIR WORK WEEK SCHEDULE.
SUMMARY
This bill generally requires employers with at least 500 employees
globally to pay certain types of employees (i.e., those in wholesale,
retail, restaurant occupations, and certain hotel occupations) half of
their regular pay rate for any scheduled hours that the employer
cancels or reduces (1) after the employee reports to work for the
scheduled hours or (2) less than seven days in advance. The bill
specifically applies to (1) restaurants where food is prepared, served,
and consumed on the premises if the employer has at least 30
restaurant locations globally and (2) a franchisee if the global network
of franchises employs at least 500 employees in total. The bill applies to
employees who are paid hourly and not exempt from minimum wage
or overtime rules.
The bill provides exceptions to this requirement under certain
circumstances, such as an employee’s written request for leave
pursuant to the employer’s leave policy; mutually agreed upon shift
swapping by employees; power outages; or a declared state of
emergency.
It also allows an employee to decline to work any hours not
included in the posted work schedule. An employee may voluntarily
consent to working these hours, but the consent must be recorded in
writing.
Additionally, the bill requires that an employer and new employee
take certain steps to establish a work schedule, including the employer
(1) obtaining the employee’s requested schedule and (2) providing an
initial schedule estimate. It also specifies how an employer must post
schedules and notify employees of schedule changes. 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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Finally, it authorizes (1) relief to employees or former employees for
violations of the bill and (2) civil penalties of $200 to be paid to the
labor commissioner for each employee affected by a violation. The bill
authorizes the labor commissioner, or, in the case of a civil action, a
court to grant the relief to employees or former employees for
violations including, among other things, compensatory damages and
other relief to make the employee or former employee whole.
*Senate Amendment “A” changes the (1) definition of employers
covered by the bill by (a) raising the employee threshold from 250 to
500, (b) eliminating nursing homes from the definition, and (c)
specifying it applies to restaurants with at least 30 locations globally;
and (2) time frame when an employer can change an employee’s
schedule without penalty from 14 or more days before the work shift
to seven or more days. It also makes conforming changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2021
EMPLOYEE DEFINITION
Under the bill an employee is a person paid by the hour who is not
exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay rules and is employed
in:
1. any wholesale or retail occupation (i.e., mercantile) which
includes selling of groceries or commodities and anything
incidental or supplemental to those such as buying, delivering,
or maintaining groceries or commodities; and any office, stock
or clerical work, except repair and service employees whose
major duties are unrelated to the mercantile trade;
2. a restaurant occupation, including any person engaged in food
preparation and service or any incidental role, which includes
employees of restaurants, cafeterias, the portion of hotel
businesses involving food, fast food outlets, coffee shops,
sandwich shops, operators of food vending machines, and the
portion of a business involving serving food in department
stores; places of amusement and recreation, commercial and 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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industrial establishments, and social, fraternal, and professional
clubs that either regularly or intermittently serve food, but
excluding food preparation and service in a nonprofit
educational, charitable, or religious organization or hospital or
nursing home where the food service is not regularly available
to the public and, in the case of hospitals or nursing homes, is
related to patient care; or
3. specified occupations within a hotel, motel, or resort, as defined
by the federal Standard Occupational Classification system (i.e.,
bartenders; dishwashers; hosts and hostesses (restaurant,
lounge and coffee shop); building cleaning workers; grounds
maintenance workers; ushers, lobby attendants and ticket
takers; baggage porters, bellhops, and concierges; desk clerks;
and receptionists and information clerks).
REQUIRED WORK SCHEDU LE PROCESS
Employee Schedule Request and Employer Schedule Estimate
Upon hiring an employee, the bill requires an employer to obtain a
written statement from the employee of his or her desired weekly
work hours and the days and times the employee is available. The
employer must notify the employee that this written statement may be
modified in writing by the employee at any time during employment.
At the time of hire, an employer must provide each employee with a
written estimate of the employee’s work schedule. The employer must
revise the estimate when there is a significant change to the employee’s
work schedule due to changes in the employee’s availability or to the
employer’s business needs. Under the bill, the estimate is not
considered a contractual offer binding the employer and an estimate
made without a basis in good faith will be a violation of this
requirement.
The employee’s work schedule estimate that the employer is
required to provide must include the:
1. average, minimum, and maximum number of work hours the 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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employee can expect to work each week;
2. minimum length of shifts that the employee can expect to work;
and
3. number of days, amount of time, and number of shifts that the
employee can expect to work, plus the days of the week and
times or shifts the employee will not be scheduled to work.
Under the bill, an employer does not violate the schedule request
and schedule estimate provisions when an employee’s average weekly
work hours significantly exceed the number provided in the written
estimate if the employer makes every effort to schedule the employee
for the employee’s desired number of weekly work hours.
Employee’s First Work Schedule
No later than the date of an employee’s first shift, the employer
must provide an employee with his or her work schedule. The
schedule must cover the period starting on the date of that first shift
and ending on the last date of the seven-day period covered by the
employer-posted work schedule as required by the bill (see below).
Thereafter, the employer must notify the employee of the employee’s
work schedule in accordance with the bill’s requirements.
Under the bill, “work schedule” means a written notice of an
employee’s regular and on-call hours, including specific start and end
times for each shift during a consecutive seven-day period.
Posting Work Schedules
At least 14 days before the first date of any work schedule’s seven-
day period, an employer must post the work schedule in a
conspicuous place that is readily accessible and visible to all
employees at the workplace. The employer must also transmit the
schedule to each employee, which may be by electronic means if that is
the regular way scheduling information is communicated to
employees. The work schedule must identify all employees currently
employed at the worksite, whether or not they are scheduled to work
any hours in the work schedule. 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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Notice of Work Schedule Changes
Under the bill, an employer must provide each employee with
written notice of any work schedule change as promptly as possible
and before the change takes effect.
The bill defines a “work schedule change” as any employer-initiated
modification to the employee’s work schedule, including: (1) adding or
reducing hours; (2) cancelling a work shift or part of a work shift; (3)
changing the date, time, or location of a work shift; or (4) scheduling
the employee for an on-call work shift for which the employee is
subsequently not needed to report to work.
Within 24 hours after making a change to the work schedule, the
employer must revise the posted schedule to reflect the change. An
employee may decline to work any hours not included in the posted
schedule (presumably, this is meant to say “not included in the posted
schedule before it was revised”). If the employee voluntarily consents
to work such hours, the consent must be recorded in writing.
Work Schedule Adjustment Requests
The bill permits employees to request adjustments to their work
schedule, including requests:
1. not to be scheduled for shifts during certain days or times or at
certain locations;
2. for certain hours, days, or work locations;
3. for more or fewer work hours; and
4. to be scheduled consistently for a specified or minimum
number of weekly work hours.
The employer must engage in an interactive process to discuss the
requests but may grant or deny them for any bona fide business reason
that is not unlawful.
WORK CANCELLATION PA Y AND ADDITIONAL WORK HOURS
PAY 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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The bill requires an employer to pay an employee one-half of the
employee’s regular pay rate for any of the employee’s scheduled work
hours that the employer cancels or reduces (1) after the employee
reports to work the scheduled hours or (2) less than seven days before
the start of the scheduled work hours. Under the bill, “scheduled work
hours” are the hours an employee is scheduled to work under a
written notice of the employee’s regular and on-call hours over a
consecutive seven-day period.
Also, an employer must pay an employee one hour of pay at the
employee’s regular rate for each instance that the employer, less than
seven days before the scheduled work, adds one or more hours of
work or changes the date, time, or location of a work shift without a
reduction of hours. Under the bill, an employee’s “regular rate” of pay
includes all remuneration for employment paid to the employee, but it
does not include, among other things, (1) sums paid as gifts or (2)
irrevocable employer contributions to a plan for providing old-age,
retirement, life, accident, or health insurance or similar benefits for
employees.
Exceptions
Under the bill, an employer does not have to pay an employee for
cancelling, reducing, or adding to the employee’s scheduled work
hours if it was due to any of the following reasons:
1. the employee’s written request, including requests to use sick,
vacation, or other leave provided by the employer;
2. a mutually agreed on shift trade or coverage arrangement
between employees, subject to an applicable existing employer
policy; or
3. the employer’s inability to operate due to (a) a public utility
failure or public transportation shutdown; (b) fire, flood, or
other natural disaster; or (c) a state of emergency declared by
the President or governor. 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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DECLINING SHIFTS WITH L ESS THAN 11 HOURS BE TWEEN
SHIFTS
The bill allows an employee to decline to work a shift that begins
less than 11 hours after the employee’s previous shift ended. But if the
employee agrees to work the shift, the bill requires the employee to
consent in writing and the employer to pay the employee one and one-
half times the employee’s regular pay rate for working the shift.
Under the bill, a “shift” is the consecutive hours, excluding breaks
of one hour or less, that an employer schedules an employee to work.
It includes the hours an employer schedules an employee to be
available to work at the employer’s request or permission (i.e., “on-
call”). Therefore, the bill also requires employers to pay employees
time-and-a-half when they are on-call for work less than 11 hours after
their previous shift ended.
LIMIT ON HIRING NEW EMPLOYEES
Under the bill, before hiring a new employee, an employer must
make every effort to schedule existing employees for the desired
number of weekly work hours that each employee identifies in the
written scheduling requests the bill requires. An employer may hire a
new employee if existing employees lack the qualifications necessary
to perform the duties of the position being filled and cannot obtain
them with reasonable training. The bill provides that this requirement
does not require an employer to schedule employees to work hours
that would require overtime pay under state or federal law.
If an employer fails to offer existing employees the opportunity to
work their desired number of weekly hours before hiring a new
employee, the employer must pay the existing employees at their
regular hourly rate for hours worked by a newly hired employee that
occurred within the existing employees’ written availability.
ENFORCEMEN T AND REMEDIES
The bill authorizes (1) relief to employees or former employees for
violations of the bill and (2) civil penalties to be paid to the labor
commissioner for the same violations. 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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It authorizes the labor commissioner, or, in the case of a lawsuit, a
court to grant to employees or former employees the following relief
for violations of the bill:
1. compensatory damages and other relief required to make the
employee or former employee whole;
2. an order directing compliance with the bill’s recordkeeping
requirements; and
3. for each violation of specific provisions, in addition to an order
directing compliance, the monetary penalties shown in Table 1.
This relief must be (1) imposed on a per employee and per instance
basis for each violation and (2) in addition to, or as an alternative to,
any other remedies provided by law.
Table 1: Work Scheduling Violations and Penalty Amounts
Violation Amount for Each
Violation
Failure to obtain employee schedule request, provide
employee with estimate of work schedule, and notify
employee that they may modify the schedule request at
any time
$200
Failure to provide first work week schedule $200
Failure to post work schedules 14 days in advance and
transmit them to employees
$200
Failure to provide written notice of any work schedule
change as promptly as possible and prior to the change
taking effect
$200
Failure to provide additional pay for (1) cancelling or
reducing scheduled hours or (2) adding hours or changing
the date, time, or location of a shift without reducing hours
$300, plus any unpaid
compensation
Failure to schedule existing employees for their designed
number of weekly hours before hiring new employees, as
provided under the bill
Greater of $500 or the
employee’s actual
damages
In addition, the bill requires employers to pay a civil penalty of $200
to the labor commissioner for each employee affected by a violation of 2021SB-00668-R01-BA.DOCX
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any of the five provisions in the table.
The bill authorizes the labor commissioner, the attorney general,
any person aggrieved by a violation of the bill, or any entity with a
member aggrieved by a violation, to bring a civil action to recover
damages, civil penalties, and any equitable and injunctive relief as the
court deems appropriate. Any individual who prevails in the civil
action must be awarded reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
MORE BENEFICIAL EMPL OYER POLICIES
The bill specifies that it does not (1) prohibit an employer from
adopting scheduling policies that are more beneficial to employees
than those the bill requires or (2) diminish an employer’s obligation to
comply with any contract, collective bargaining agreement,
employment benefit plan, or other agreement if it is more beneficial to
an employee than the bill.
REGULATIONS AND RECO RDS REQUIREMENT
The bill allows the labor commissioner to adopt regulations to
implement and enforce the bill’s provisions. It requires employers,
unless they are exempted by the regulations, to keep true and accurate
records, for at least three years, of each employee’s (1) daily and
weekly shifts worked and (2) work schedule and schedule revisions.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Labor and Public Employees Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 9 Nay 4 (03/23/2021)
Judiciary Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 24 Nay 14 (05/03/2021)