Effective: 03-26-25
Supersedes: 09-07-22
Purpose: Shift Trading / Shift Give-Away are intended to provide the employees with ability to cover their assigned shift with another employee.
Policy: To define the utilization of Shift Trades and Shift Give-Away, and distinguish them from a Permanent Schedule Trade.
Definitions
Shift Trades are a one-for-one trade of a shift with another team member during the same pay week.
A Shift Give-away is when an employee needs to find coverage for a shift and gives it away without picking up a shift for another employee.
PLEASE NOTE: The terms “SHIFT TRADE” and “SHIFT SWAP” are interchangeable.
Procedure:
Employees may be allowed to trade/give-away shifts in accordance with the following procedures:
· All Shift Trades and Shift Give-away requests should be submitted via the Company’s scheduling software a minimum of 72 hours prior to date of the request. The requested shift trade or shift give-away is not approved until notification has been delivered by the FS team and received by the employee making the request. In the event that the software will not allow the swap to go through, please contact your supervisor.
· Trades MUST occur within the same pay week and may not result in any additional costs to the employer.
· Give-aways MUST be done with a part-time or per-diem employee with less than 40 scheduled hours so as not to incur overtime costs and the appropriate give-away form must be filled out and signed by both parties.
· Shift Trades shall be done on an hour for hour basis. Exceptions may be made to 10, 12, 13- & 14-hour shifts, as there are a limited number of these.
· Employees who agree to trade a shift will be held accountable for the shift they agreed to cover. If an employee fails to show up for an agreed shift trade or giveaway, that employee may have their shift trade/giveaway privileges revoked for a period of up to three (3) months.
· No shift trade or give-away may result in a consecutive shift of any more than 36 hours nor exceed 72 hours in the pay week.
· Generally, employees are assigned to a regular schedule. In some situations, an employee may be able to change their work days during a particular pay-week at the discretion of the supervisor so long as it meets the operational needs of the company. In effect, the employee is doing a “shift trade” with themselves.
· If a request for a vacation day cannot be approved because of staffing, or the employee does not have accrued time to cover the time off, it is the employee’s responsibility to arrange for coverage. While the Supervisor may be able to assist in coordinating the shift trade by seeking volunteers on the requesting party’s behalf, it remains the employee’s responsibility to obtain coverage. Failure to work a scheduled shift without approved leave or shift trade is not an option and will result in disciplinary action.
Note: Shift Trades and Shift Giveaways are intended for intermittent or occasional shift changes or time off needs.
A Permanent schedule trade is when two employees make a change in their schedules by trading schedules with each other. This type of trade is considered a new shift configuration committing the employees to six months in these shifts. All requests for a permanent schedule trade must be made in writing to the Scheduling Department for approval to ensure it meets all minimum staffing and experience requirements, and does not exceed maximum consecutive hours or other operational needs.