If you manage a retailer or a restaurant in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, you might have heard of Fair Workweek. This new legislation is built to protect the work-life balance and financial stability of employees through the use of fair scheduling practices.
So if you haven’t already built labor compliance into your staff management process, now is the time to get going. To help you, we reached out to Littler Mendelson, a U.S.-based law firm that handles labor and employment litigation. Read on for Littler’s top four tips for labor compliance.
Labor compliance tip #1 – Make historical data easily accessible
If an auditor asked you for full, accurate records of your timesheets, would your head be spinning?
Protect you (and your staff) by making all your records easily accessible. Weekly and daily business data, like your scheduling, should be available for your entire staff. Many regulations also require employers to notify staff in advance of their schedules. And employers could be penalized with fines for schedule changes made within a designated notice period.
Labor compliance tip #2 – Create written work policies
Although some cities and states already have regulations in place, make sure you write down the policies and share them with your team. Then, inform all employees and managers of any new changes.
Develop a system to communicate schedules, schedule changes, and available shifts to employees. Failure to give proper notice or making a change during the notice period could result in the employer paying compensation or a flat fee depending on their jurisdiction.
Bonus: add a summary of covered employees’ rights in job postings, offer letters, and other recruitment and orientation materials.
Labor compliance tip #3 – Train your managers on best practices
Most fair scheduling laws give employees a right to have input regarding their work schedules. Train your human resources, payroll, and managerial staff on fair/predictive scheduling and family-friendly workplace requirements. Create short certification programs and require all key stakeholders to be trained on the law and regulations.
Labor compliance tip #4 – Invest in tech that values labor compliance
Review payroll and timekeeping systems to ensure that they are capable of recognizing, processing, and accurately applying all applicable scheduling and predictability pay scenarios. If they are missing core functionality that will help make you compliant, look into newer programs.
It pays to simplify compliance with the right tools
The industries most affected by predictive scheduling laws are the fast food, service, hospitality, and retail sectors where giving employees fluctuating work schedules is common.
So how can you simplify compliance and help protect your business? Get in touch with our team to learn how compliance management software can be a game changer for your business.
