This post was written by Candace Chewning, Outreach and Communications Director for the Office of Worker Protections.
Beginning April 1, 2020, Philadelphia’s Fair Workweek law requires covered employers to provide service, retail, and hospitality workers with a predictable work schedule and other protections. Covered employers include those with 250 or more employees worldwide and 30 or more locations worldwide.
You can learn more about the law by visiting our Fair Workweek resources page. This law is enforced by the Office of Worker Protections in the Philadelphia Department of Labor.
Good Faith Estimates for all employees on July 1, 2020.
A key provision of the Fair Workweek law is that covered employers must provide employees with a written average of work hours the employee can expect to work in a given week. Any new hires made since April 2020 should have been receiving a Good Faith Estimate upon hire. Starting July 1, 2020, covered employers must provide all new hires and existing employees with a written good faith estimate.
Good faith estimates are not required for employees who are on official leave or furloughed, or when the business is not operating. When an employee returns to work from such time off, an employer can either provide them with a new good faith estimate or the most recent good faith estimate will be active.
Have you received your Good Faith Estimate?
At the time of hire, a covered employer must provide an employee with a written good faith estimate of the employee’s work schedule, which must contain:
- The average number of work hours the employee can expect to work each week over a typical 90-day period.
- Clarification on whether the employee can expect to work any on-call shifts.
- A list of days and times (or shifts) that the employee can typically expect to work, or days of the week and times (or shifts) on which the employee will not be scheduled to work—including at least one day off.
“Good faith” means a sincere intention to deal fairly with others. The Good Faith Estimate is a reasonable, fact-based prediction, which employers may base on forecasts, prior hours worked by a similarly-situated employee(s), or other information. Good Faith Estimates are not required during an employee’s regular training period.
Employees can still request off without triggering a significant change.
At the time of hire and during employment, the employee has the right to make work schedule requests such as:
- Requests not to be scheduled for work shifts during certain days or times, or at certain locations.
- Requests not to work on-call shifts.
- Requests for certain hours, days, or locations of work.
- Requests for more or fewer work hours.
The employer is required to revise the Good Faith Estimate as promptly as possible when there is a significant change due to employee’s availability or employer needs. Voluntary changes to the employee’s schedule requested by the employee do not count as a significant change.
A detailed description of what constitutes a significant change and examples of Good Faith Estimates can be found in the law’s regulations.
Request a training.
The Office of Worker Protections offers compliance support and training for employers on the Fair Workweek Law. If you would like to request a training, email FairWorkweek@phila.gov.
A Good Faith Estimate template can be found on our Fair Workweek resources page.
