Legal work week questions Texas

[kellye]

Is it legal to have more than one start of your work week per company? Is it fine if they're different departments? What about on a per employee basis? I can't imagine that it would be but I wanted to be sure.

The example I was given is these employees begin their workweek at noon on Fridays. These other employees begin their work week at 9p on Fridays.

[Pattymd]

That is legal. It could be administratively problematic if you don't have a time and attendance system that is configured correctly, and the employees aren't assigned to the correct schedule, but there's no law against it.

[DAW]

We need to be very careful just what we are talking about here. "Workweek" is a legal concept defined in federal law (FLSA). It is a fixed 168 hour period of time used to determine compliance with minimum wage and overtime rules. It is legally unrelated to shifts and schedules. Most large employers have many shifts and schedules but use a single workweek definition for all employees. My last 4 employers all used a single workweek definition for all employees ending Sunday midnight even though none of those employees actually used shifts or schedules ending Sunday midnight.

I agree with Patty that a very stupid employer could have many different workweek definitions, even as many as one per employee. However this is not common. More over, if the employer tries to pretend that workweeks and shifts/schedules are somehow related, they are going to start tripping over their own feet legally. The law is very clear that once the workweek is established, that it is supposed to stay put. Shifts and schedules on the other hand do get moved around a lot. Employers who try to pretend that shifts and schedules have anything what-so-ever to do with workweeks are very likely to get in trouble with the government.

[kellye]

The employer is using a 9/80 compressed work week. They have employees who work during the day and and employees who work the overnight shift. They're using a work week from Friday to Thursday, beginning at 12 noon for the daytime employees and 9p for the overnight employees. They do this so there's no chance of the employees earning overtime (as long as the employees only work their shifts).

Their time and attendance software can handle this calculation for them. I was just worried about the legalities of a company having different start time of work weeks for different employees at the same company/location.

The company is headquartered in MA with other locations throughout the United States. Does that make a difference?

[Pattymd]

Makes no difference where the workers are located. It is legal.

One other thing, does the pay period for each group correspond with the end of their workweek? For example, the 9/80 group workweek ends Friday noon and the pay period ends on Friday, while the 10/80 group workweek ends on Thursday and the pay period also ends on Thursday? Where I'm going with this is to verify that the pay period ending date on the pay stubs (because some states require it) reflects the actual ending date, assuming the pay period ending date coincides with the work week ending date. Not very good grammar, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to get across?

[nbarrett4111]

As long as they only work their scheduled shifts, why not have the overnight employee's workweek also begin at noon Friday? The start of the workweek doesn't have to coincide with the beginning of the first shift for the week.

For example, our workweek begins at 12:00 a.m. Saturday but the first shift of the week usually starts at 6:00 a.m. Monday.

Are you possibly making this more complicated than necessary?

[kellye]

The pay period ending date does reflect the actual ending date on the employee paystubs.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance!

[kellye]

Originally Posted by nbarrett4111

As long as they only work their scheduled shifts, why not have the overnight employee's workweek also begin at noon Friday? The start of the workweek doesn't have to coincide with the beginning of the first shift for the week.

For example, our workweek begins at 12:00 a.m. Saturday but the first shift of the week usually starts at 6:00 a.m. Monday.

Are you possibly making this more complicated than necessary?

The base work week must split at 9p for the overnight employees due to the 9/80 compressed work week.

Some example schedules:

Daytime employees, work week Friday-Thursday, ends at 12p:

Week A

Monday: 8a - 5:30p
Tuesday: 8a - 5:30p
Wednesday: 8a - 5:30p
Thursday: 8a - 5:30p
Friday: 8a - 4:30p
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

Removing 30 minute breaks from each shift means a total of 44 hours for week A and 36 hours for week B.

Week B

Monday: 8a - 5:30p
Tuesday: 8a - 5:30p
Wednesday: 8a - 5:30p
Thursday: 8a - 5:30p
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

By splitting at noon and including a 30 minute unpaid break at 12p their hours would calculate thusly:

Week A

Monday: 9
Tuesday: 9
Wednesday: 9
Thursday: 9
Friday: 8 hour shift cut in half at 12p, so 4 hours (8a-12p) go to the previous week, and 4 hours (12:30p-4:30a) move to the beginning of the next week.
Saturday: 0
Sunday: 0

Total Week A: 40 hours

Week B

(include the 4 hours from 12p-4:30p on Friday in week A minus a 30 minute break)
Monday: 9
Tuesday: 9
Wednesday: 9
Thursday: 9
Friday: 0
Saturday: 0
Sunday: 0

Total: 40 hours

Overnight employees, work week Friday-Thursday, ends at 9p:

Week A

Monday: 4:30p - 2a
Tuesday: 4:30p - 2a
Wednesday: 4:30p - 2a
Thursday: 4:30p - 2a
Friday: 4:30p - 1a
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

Week B

Monday: 4:30p - 2a
Tuesday: 4:30p - 2a
Wednesday: 4:30p - 2a
Thursday: 4:30p - 2a
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

Again, removing 30 minute breaks from each shift means a total of 44 hours for week A and 36 hours for week B.

By splitting at 9p and including a 30 minute unpaid break at 8:30p their hours would calculate thusly:

Week A

Monday: 9
Tuesday: 9
Wednesday: 9
Thursday: 9
Friday: 8 hour shift cut in half at 9p, so 4 hours (4:30p-8:30p) go to the previous week, and 4 hours (9p-1a) move to the beginning of the next week.
Saturday: 0
Sunday: 0

Total Week A: 40 hours

Week B
(include the 4 hours from 9p-1a minus a 30 minute break)
Monday: 9
Tuesday: 9
Wednesday: 9
Thursday: 9
Friday: 0
Saturday: 0
Sunday: 0

Total: 40 hours

If you split at noon for the overnight employees all of the hours on Friday in week A would be shifted to week B, making the hour breakdown be 36 hours week A and 44 hours week B.

[nbarrett4111]

What about starting at 8:00 a.m. then? It looks like no one is working between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and that way, neither of the shifts has a workday that gets split?

[kellye]

Originally Posted by nbarrett4111

What about starting at 8:00 a.m. then? It looks like no one is working between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and that way, neither of the shifts has a workday that gets split?

It doesn't matter if anyone is working or not. In fact, the weeks have to be split when they're working so that the hours get divided among the two weeks evenly. Half of the shift's hours on one week and half of the shift's hours on the other week. This is how a 9/80 work schedule works.