1503 - Alternate Work Week Schedule Policy for Work Week Group 2

Category

Work Schedules

Audience List

• Employee Relations Officers
• Personnel Officers
• Transactions Supervisors

Synopsis

This policy:

• Provides the state’s requirements regarding Alternate Work Week Schedules (AWWS) for employees in Work Week Group (WWG) 2. 
• Defines terms related to Alternate Work Week 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 Alternate Work Week Schedules (AWWS) for employees in Work Week Group (WWG) 2. This policy applies to all WWG 2 full-time employees represented by an exclusive bargaining representative or excluded from collective bargaining. 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 of this policy is in conflict with a provision of an applicable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the MOU shall control.

Statement

AWWS for WWG 2 Employees:

The purpose of an AWWS is to provide employees flexibility in work hours while maintaining operational efficiency, productivity, and effective service to the public and state departments. The AWWS allows employees and management to mutually agree upon a work schedule that varies from the standard eight (8) hours per day, five (5) days per week work schedule. An AWWS does not alter the total number of hours worked per work week.

The major benefits of the AWWS 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.

Full-time state employees in WWG 2 are eligible to work an AWWS as set forth below. WWG 2 employees are those employees who are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime requirements. WWG 2 employees may be represented by an exclusive bargaining representative or may be excluded from collective bargaining.

WWG 2 employees working a “7k” schedule governed by Title 29, section 207(k) of the FLSA are not subject to the AWWS terms and policy described herein. Such employees should refer to the applicable MOU.

Participation in AWWS 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.

Employee Responsibilities:

The employee must adhere to the terms and conditions of the AWWS policies and procedures. Failure to adhere to the terms and conditions may result in termination of the employee’s AWWS.

Management/Personnel Office Responsibilities:

Department management will evaluate the employee’s request for AWWS participation based on established criteria and in relation to operational needs, and will either approve or deny the request. 

Departments that allow AWWS that are not the standard 9/8/80 or 4/10/40 schedule must make certain the schedule does not exceed 40 hours of work in a workweek. AWWS resulting in scheduled overtime is strictly prohibited. 

Once an employee’s AWWS is approved, management shall regularly evaluate the employee based on the established maintenance criteria for her/his continued participation in the AWWS. Management shall also monitor the employee’s attendance and timesheet for compliance with proper record and timekeeping procedures. The department’s personnel office will maintain the original approved agreement form and calendar.

Excess/Deficit Hours:

Full-time state employee salaries represent pay for monthly employment consisting of either 21 or 22 workdays per pay period. All full-time employees are required to account for 168 or 176 hours in each pay period, depending upon the number of work days in the pay period. This may include time physically worked, time excused using leave credits, and/or time excused in observance of designated state holidays. An AWWS can sometimes result in a number of work hours scheduled for a pay period that exceeds or falls below the 168 or 176 work hours designated for a particular pay period. 

Excess Hours:   When an AWWS causes the number of scheduled work hours per pay period to exceed the 168 or 176 work hours designated for the pay period, the difference is called “excess hours.” Excess hours are credited at the close of the pay period, and therefore, cannot be used during the month they are earned. Excess hours will be carried as a credit on the employee’s leave balance, and are identified as excess hours. Excess hours shall not be credited as any other type of leave (e.g., annual leave, vacation or sick leave).

Deficit Hours:   When an AWWS causes the number of scheduled work hours per pay period to fall below the 168 or 176 work hours designated for the pay period, the difference is called “deficit hours.” Deficit hours will not be carried over to the next pay period. The employee must use previously earned excess hours equal to the difference between the designated number of hours for the pay period and the number of scheduled work hours. If the employee does not have sufficient excess hours, s/he may use other leave credits (other than sick leave) to cover the deficit. If the employee does not have sufficient paid leave to cover the deficit, her/his pay will be docked. The AWWS may be terminated for failure to maintain a minimum number of leave credit balances.

Upon separation or transfer to another department, any accumulated excess hours shown on the employee’s leave balances will be paid at the straight time rate. 

Each leave transaction, including accrual of excess hours or charge of deficit hours, shall be documented individually, and not as a net transaction. For example, leave accounting records for an employee who accrues 4 hours of excess leave but charges 10 hours of leave credits to account for an absence must show the employee accrued 4 hours of excess, and charged 10 hours of leave credits, not simply that the employee charged 6 hours of leave credits.

Leave Credits:

Leave credits used to take time off from work must be charged according to the number of hours the employee is scheduled to work that day. For example, an employee who works a 4/10/40 schedule who is absent on sick leave all day must charge 10 hours of sick leave credits. An employee on a 9/8/80 schedule who is out all day on vacation on a 9-hour day must charge 9 hours of vacation leave credits. Similarly, if an employee on a 9/8/80 schedule is out on vacation on their 8-hour day, she/he must charge 8 hours of vacation leave credits.

Holidays:  A full-time employee who does not work because of a holiday receives 8 hours of pay for the 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, employees on a 9/8/80 AWWS taking three 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 Regulations, title 2, section 599.923.

Dock:  If an employee does not have sufficient leave credits to make up all deficit hours, her/his paycheck will be docked the amount required to make up any remaining deficit hours after leave credits (if any) have been charged. 

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

Overtime:

Refer to the department’s policies and/or employee’s MOU for procedures regarding working overtime hours. Overtime hours are hours physically worked in excess of 40 hours during the employee’s regularly scheduled work week. Unless otherwise provided in an MOU, leave credits used are not counted as hours worked for purposes of determining overtime. 

For employees on a 9/8/80 AWWS, the work week begins 4 hours into the 8-hour day on one week and ends at the same time of the day on the RDO in the following week. Employees must not alter their schedule in any way that modifies the work week or results in the employee working more than 40 hours in a work week.

Standard Calendars:

Calendars for 9/8/80 and 4/10/40 schedules are posted on the CalHR website and will be updated each year. Employees must sign the AWWS calendar corresponding with their proposed schedule and submit it with their AWWS request. Four scenarios of common AWWS can be found in the resources section below.

Forms:

A link to a sample AWWS Agreement is in the Forms section below.

Application

Requesting AWWS:

To participate in an AWWS, a full-time employee must complete and submit to their immediate supervisor an AWWS Agreement and the corresponding AWWS calendar for the proposed schedule for the period of time an AWWS is requested. The request must be made at least 30 days before the commencement of the proposed AWWS. The department has discretion to set a different period of time in which an employee must request an AWWS.

The form or calendar must designate the employee’s proposed weekly schedule, including regular days off, the number of excess and deficit hours accrued each pay period, and designate the beginning and end of the employee’s work week. Subject to the procedures for adjusting schedules set forth in this policy statement, the scheduled days off for an employee working a 9/8/80 schedule cannot be changed once it has been approved. For example, an employee with a Monday RDO may not switch for one week to a Friday RDO. This is because an employee who works a 9/8/80 AWWS the work week begins and ends four hours into the 8-hour day on one week and at the same time of the day on the RDO in the opposite week. Employees working a 4/10/40 have a standard work week and therefore are not affected. For employees working a 9/8/80 AWWS, the RDO and 8 hour day must fall on the same day of the week, as this determines the employee’s workweek. The employee must sign the AWWS Agreement and corresponding AWWS calendar.

Employees requesting a 9/8/80 AWWS wherein the employee works four 9-hour days per week and one 8-hour day every other week must designate the date and time of a work week that begins and ends 4 hours into the 8-hour day or day off. Thus, the employee must work four 9-hour days and 4 hours of his/her 8-hour day, for a total of 40 hours, every work week. This prevents the employee from accruing overtime every other week as a result of her/his AWWS. Employees on a 9/8/80 schedule must work the schedule identified on their calendar, and may not alter their schedule in any way that results in the employee working more than 40 hours in a work week. No proposed AWWS schedule may result in a full-time employee working more than 40 hours in a work week.

If approved, an AWWS request will be forwarded to the department’s personnel office and processed. The original documents will be kept by the department’s personnel office. The supervisor and employee should retain a copy of all documents submitted for their own records. Management and the employee should consider implementing the AWWS at the start of a new pay period for ease of record and timekeeping. Both the employee and management must sign any approved AWWS request form and AWWS calendar.

If the request is denied, a written explanation will be provided within 30 days, or within the time period designated by the applicable MOU, from the date of denial. The department has discretion to set forth policies for appealing a denial of a request for AWWS.   

Maintaining AWWS:

The employee must satisfy the following conditions for continued participation in an AWWS: 

1.     The employee must maintain satisfactory attendance and job performance.

2.     The employee must adhere to their designated schedule. Standard calendars have been developed to assist employees in completing monthly time reports.

3.     The employee must enter the daily hours worked and any leave credit usage on their timesheet. The employee shall ensure that the monthly time reports accurately reflect the number of hours required within the pay period, regardless of work schedule.

4.     Departments may establish a minimum number of leave credits that an employee is required to maintain in order to participate in an AWWS. If the employee’s leave credit balance falls below the minimum number, participation in AWWS may be terminated. Employees who have a pattern of being docked should not be permitted to maintain an AWWS.

5.     The employee is required to submit renewal applications for AWWS on a regular basis. At a minimum, renewal applications shall be submitted at the beginning of each calendar year when new AWWS calendars are in effect or more often if the department requires.

6.     The department may require an employee who is new to state service to serve a waiting period of six qualifying pay periods prior to being eligible for AWWS. This will allow employees to accrue a minimum number of leave credits as established by the department. 

Adjusting AWWS:

An employee may request to permanently adjust her/his AWWS by submitting a new AWWS Agreement form, which must be approved by management. Prior to approval, the timing of the AWWS change should be considered in an effort to eliminate or minimize overtime and for ease of record and timekeeping. 

Terminating AWWS:

An employee who wishes to voluntarily terminate an AWWS must notify her/his management in writing, with a copy to the department’s personnel office, at least 30 days prior to the effective date of the termination. The department has discretion to require an alternative period of time during which an employee must notify management of their voluntary termination of their AWWS.

Management has the right to change or terminate an employee’s AWWS upon written notification to the employee. This notification will be in accordance with department procedures and the applicable MOU. Appropriate reasons for management to initiate a change or termination of an AWWS 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
• Employee’s failure to abide by terms of the AWWS
• Employee’s pattern of dock status

If this policy is in conflict with your department’s current practice/policy, 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

Forms

• AWWS Agreement Form: AWWS Agreement Form
• WWG 2 AWWS Scenarios: WWG 2 AWWS Scenarios

Web Pages

• Calendars for Alternate Work Week Schedules: Calendars for Alternate Work Week Schedules

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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