12 Hour Shifts

Early next year, we are likely going to change one department (3 shifts) to a 12 hour schedule with the department running 7 days/week. Maybe some of you can answer my questions:

1. How do you schedule days of the week so that no one crew has to work every weekend?
2. How do you pay if one week is 36 hours and next is 48 hours?
3. How do you pay holiday, sick, vacation, jury, etc.? If by hours, how many hours for Xmas (e.g.) does your crew get?
4. Do you ever pay overtime?

Anything else I should consider?

Thanks much.

Comments

  • 5 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • We will begin a 12-hour shift in one work unit later this month. The employees will work three 12-hour days followed by four days off one week; and four 12-hour days with three days off the following week. This does result in your # 2 above - a 36-hour week followed by a 48-hour week. We checked with our state wage & hour division (and rechecked when we didn't believe their answer), but were told that if the schedule were agreed to by a union as part of a collective bargaining agreement we could base overtime on 80 hours in a two-week period. So, the employees will earn four hours of OT every two weeks. As we need this schedule only for a temporary period, it works for us. For vacation, holiday leave, etc. we will just follow our collective bargaining agreement (an employee earns only eight hours for a holiday, uses 12 hours if he/she takes leave, etc.)
  • Take a look at the 'alternative work schedules for non exempt..'thread from a week or so ago. You may find some help there.
  • Hi, Ranger. One company I used to work for had these 12-hr shifts. One day crew would work every Sunday, Mon, & Tues and the other would work every Thurs, Fri & Sat. They would rotate Wednesdays. The night crew would do the same except they would rotate the Saturday night. So, in essence, everyone has to at least work one weekend day or night every week. We would pay 8 hours of OT the week that they worked 48 hrs.

    They now have a pool of earned time that includes vacation, sick and holiday pay based on 8 hrs for the paid day off. They pull what they need. This works out best because one problem used to be for example, when the holiday fell on a Monday for those who didn't work Mondays. They were paid an additional 8 hrs when they really didn't need it. This new way, they can use the time when they want it or when a holiday falls on their end of the week, for example.
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