1501 - Non-Standard Work Schedule Policy for Work Week Group E/SE

Category

Work Schedules

Audience List

• Labor Relations Officers
• Personnel Officers
• Personnel Transactions Supervisors

Synopsis

This policy:

• Provides the state’s requirements regarding non-standard work schedules for full-time employees exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
• Defines terms related to non-standard work schedules.
• Provides information on charging leave credits in the event of discretionary and non-discretionary absences.

Introduction

This policy sets forth the state’s requirements regarding non-standard work schedules for full-time employees exempt from FLSA.  This policy applies to all Work Week Group (WWG) E/SE employees, including employees represented by an exclusive bargaining representative or excluded from collective bargaining.  Departments utilizing non-standard work schedules for WWG E/SE employees should immediately review their current policies/practices.  If this policy is in conflict with your department’s current practice/policy, please contact the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) Labor Relations Office for further direction.

If any provision in this policy is in conflict with a provision of an applicable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the MOU shall control. 

Statement

Non-Standard Work Schedules for WWG E/SE Employees:

WWG E/SE employees are expected to work as many hours as necessary to complete the work assigned.  Accordingly, WWG E/SE employee work schedules may fluctuate at times depending on the nature and amount of work to be performed.  In the absence of work requiring irregular or fluctuating hours of work, WWG E/SE employees are expected to maintain a consistent work schedule as directed by management. 

Work schedules may include a standard “8 to 5” work schedule, which involves working five (5) days per week, eight (8) hours per day (5/8/40 schedule).  Non-standard work schedules are schedules that deviate from a standard work schedule in a uniform, consistent manner, subject to agreement between the employee and management.  Non-standard work schedules provide WWG E/SE employees flexibility in work hours while maintaining operational efficiency, productivity and effective service to the public and state departments. 

The major benefits of non-standard work schedules are:

1. Extended hours of service to the public and other state agencies;
2. Improved employee morale and job satisfaction; and
3. Decreased short-term absenteeism for medical and miscellaneous personal appointments.

Participation in non-standard work schedules is voluntary, and is subject to management approval.

Descriptions:

Alternate Work Week:   A work schedule which allows a non-exempt employee to work a fixed schedule other than 5 days per week, 8 hours per day.            

Core hours:   Hours identified by a department as core operational hours, whereby all employees are expected to be at work. For example, a department may maintain core hours of 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Flex Schedule:   An approved schedule that allows an employee to “flex,” or adjust, their start and end times, so long as the employee has worked his/her scheduled number of hours per day. At no time may a flex schedule result in overtime hours  worked. A department may require employees with flexed schedules to be present at work during established core hours and perform all work during work hours established by the department. 

Pay Period:   A set period of time for which employees are paid. The calendar year is divided into 12 pay periods consisting of 21 or 22 workdays, or 168 or 176 designated work hours, respectively.

Telework:   A fixed schedule during which an employee works away from a regular work location for a pre-established number of days. The employee must be available and accessible by phone and email during the agreed upon work schedule. 

Work Week:   A fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, which is seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The work week may begin on any day of the week and at any hour of the day, but typically coincides with the calendar week. The work week is the basis on which determinations of overtime compensation is made. 

5/8/40:   A fixed work schedule consisting of five 8-hour days.  

9/8/80:   A type of AWWS consisting of eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day in a two-week period with one scheduled day off every other week. The 8-hour day must be on the same day of the week as the scheduled day off. The work week for employees on a 9/8/80 AWWS begins and ends four hours into the 8-hour day or day off.

4/10/40:   A type of AWWS consisting of four 10-hour days and one scheduled day off per week.

Regular Day Off (RDO):   A regularly scheduled day off of work. For example, employees scheduled to work a 5/8/40 schedule will have two RDOs per week, typically Saturday and Sunday. Employees scheduled to work a 4/10/40 schedule will have three RDOs per week.

Excess/Deficit Hours:

While a WWG E/SE employee’s non-standard work schedule may appear similar to an Alternate Work Week Schedule (AWWS), WWG E/SE employees are not permitted to work a formal AWWS.  For example, WWG E/SE employees, unlike WWG 2 employees, charge leave credits in whole day increments and do not accrue excess and deficit hours.

Leave Credits:

WWG E/SE employees charge leave credits in whole workday increments.  A whole workday consists of the number of hours the employee is scheduled to work pursuant to the standard work schedule or documented non-standard work schedule.

For example, a WWG E/SE employee who works a standard work schedule should be charged 8 hours of applicable leave credits when absent for a whole workday.  A WWG E/SE employee scheduled to a 4/10/40 non-standard work schedule who is absent on sick leave for a whole workday must be charged 10 hours of applicable leave credits.  An employee scheduled to work a 9-hour day must be charged 9 hours of applicable leave credits if absent for the entire workday.

Charging leave credits according to the number of hours scheduled applies the instruction previously provided in PML 2005-007 and PML 2005-022 to all WWG E/SE employees.  This instruction modifies the direction previously set forth in response to Question 7 of the attachment to PML 94-32.

Holidays:  Subject to an MOU, a full-time employee who does not work because of a holiday generally receives 8 hours of pay for a holiday.  The employee must charge additional time to available leave credits in order to supplement the remainder of the scheduled workday if scheduled to work more than 8 hours. 

The following is an example of an employee who works four 9-hour workdays and one 4-hour workday: If a holiday falls on the employee’s normally scheduled 9-hour workday and the employee does not work, the employee must charge 1 hour of another appropriate leave credit to equal 9 hours for that day.  If a holiday falls on an employee’s normally scheduled 4-hour day and the employee takes the holiday off, the employee will accrue an additional 4 hours of holiday credit.

Bereavement Leave:  Most full-time employees receive a maximum of 24 hours of bereavement leave (BL) per occurrence or per fiscal year.  If an employee whose schedule is more than 8 hours per day takes three (3) full days of BL, the employee must supplement the 24 hours of BL with additional accumulated leave credits, according to the number of hours the employee is scheduled to work.  For example, an employee who works a 9/8/80 non-standard work schedule and takes 3 days of BL on their 9 hour days must use 3 hours of other leave credits to account for the shortage (9 BL, 9 BL, 6 BL, and 3 other leave credits).  To determine an employee’s eligibility for BL, refer to the applicable MOU for represented employees.  For non-represented employees, refer to Government Code section 19859.3 and California Code of Regulation, title 2, section 599.923.

Certain types of non-discretionary absences, such as jury duty, military duty, or disability, are recorded as leave of up to eight (8) hours for a whole-day absence.  When an employee is absent from work for any of these reasons, the employee must still account for 40 scheduled hours of work or recorded leave for the workweek.  In such cases, the employee has discretion to temporarily revert to a 5/8/40 for a minimum of one work week (for 4/10/40 AWWS) or two weeks (for 9/8/80 AWWS), or charge additional leave time to available leave credits in order to supplement the remainder of the scheduled workday. 

Once the temporary need for a standard schedule is complete, the employee may revert back to their requested non-standard work schedule.  The work weeks during which an employee reverted to a temporary 5/8/40 schedule and reverted back to the requested non-standard work schedule must be documented.  

Application

Establishing A Non-Standard Work Schedule:

To establish a non-standard work schedule, the WWG E/SE employee and his/her supervisor must document in writing the agreed-upon non-standard work schedule.  The schedule must identify the days of the week the employee is scheduled to work, and the number of hours the employee is scheduled to work each day.

The non-standard work schedule will remain in effect until the employee or their supervisor document in writing to revert to a standard work schedule or apply an alternative non-standard work schedule.  Typical non-standard work schedules may include a 4/10/40 schedule, consisting of four workdays per week and 10 hours of work per day, or a 9/8/80 schedule, consisting of eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day distributed equally across two consecutive workweeks.  Other non-standard work schedules may be implemented, subject to the principle that non-standard work schedules should include 40 hours of work each work week.

Non-standard schedules are documented for leave charging purposes, and do not curtail a department’s authority and discretion to require WWG E/SE employees to perform additional work or work additional hours as needed.

Terminating a Non-Standard Work Schedule:

Management has the right to change or terminate an employee’s non-standard work schedule.  Notification of a change or termination of an employee’s non-standard work schedule will be in accordance with the applicable MOU and/or departmental policy.  Appropriate reasons for management to initiate a change or termination of a non-standard work schedule include, but are not limited to:

• Operational need of the department
• Substandard employee performance (productivity or attendance)
• Decrease in level of service
• Inadequate staffing coverage

If this policy is in conflict with your department’s current policies/practices, please contact the CalHR Labor Relations Office for further direction.

Authorities

• Bargaining Contracts - MOUs
• Government Code section 19851
• Government Code section 19852
• Government Code section 19853
• United States Code, title 29, chapter 8, section 201 et seq.

Resources

PML

• PML 1994-032: PML 1994-032 - 6/2/1994 - Fair Labor Standards Act Follow-up -- WWG 4C Employees
• PML 2005-007: PML 2005-007 - 2/1/2005 - Bargaining Unit 3 Arbitration Decision on Alternate Work Weeks
• PML 2005-022: PML 2005-022 - 7/22/2005 - Arbitration Award DPA No. 02-03-0122 – Article 19 Hours of Work SEIU

Authorized By

Melissa Russell
Chief
Personnel Management Division

Contact Person

Personnel Services Branch
Personnel Program Consultant , Personnel Services Branch
Phone: 916-909-3702
Fax: 916-327-1886
Email: psb@calhr.ca.gov

Superseded Policies

History

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