On December 12, 2018, the New York State Department submitted proposed regulations on employee scheduling for public comment. These proposed regulations require employers to compensate employees for unscheduled shifts, canceled shifts and “on-call” shifts.
Under the proposed regulations, for unscheduled shifts, the employer must pay the employee an additional two hours of pay if the employer did not schedule the shift more than 14 days in advance of the shift occurring. Further, if an employer cancels an employee’s shift within 14 days of the shift occurring, the employer would need to pay the employee an additional two hours of pay. If the employer cancels the shift within 72 hours of the shift taking place, the employer would owe the employee an additional four hours of pay. Finally, if an employer requires an employee to be “on-call,” meaning that the employee is available to report to work for any shift, the employer must compensate the employee for an additional four hours of pay. This also includes situations in which the employer requires the employee to call in within 72 hours of their shift for their schedule.
While there are a few exceptions included in the proposed regulations, such as for employees whose duties are directly dependent on weather conditions or employees whose are necessary to protect the health or safety of the public, the proposed regulations significantly expand the application of employee scheduling pay rules. Currently, the regulations only provide “on-call” pay of at least four hours, or the number of hours in the regularly scheduled shift, whichever is less, at the basic minimum hourly wage.
For each of these proposed regulations, the applicable pay rate is the employee’s regular pay rate, or overtime rate, if the employee has already worked over 40 hours in the week in which these regulations apply.
The proposed regulations will be subject to a 30-day public comment period before a determination whether to allow the Department of Labor to adopt the proposed regulations as final.
For more information or to speak to someone about whether you have unpaid wages, contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. for a consultation.
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