The shift roster: drawing it up, publishing and notice periods

In brief

• The shift roster must show, for every employee, when regular working hours begin and end and the times of the breaks (section 30).
• The roster is drawn up for the length of the adjustment period, at least a week, and it is given to the employees in writing no later than a week before the period starts.
• Changing a published roster requires the employee's consent or a weighty reason relating to the arrangement of work.
• Shift rosters are kept until the limitation period for claims ends, unless the same information appears in the working-time records.

The shift roster under section 30 of the Working Hours Act shows regular working hours and breaks. Normally, employees must receive it in writing at least one week before the period begins. This guide covers the statutory default rules; also check the Act’s applicability, the collective agreement and exceptions such as flexitime.

Download the Excel shift roster. It calculates shift duration and hours by employee. Instructions appear at the end of this guide.

What the shift roster must contain

Section 30 of the Working Hours Act names two pieces of information that must be stated for every employee:

• the times at which regular working hours begin and end
• the times of the breaks referred to in section 24

If continuous daily working time exceeds six hours and the employee’s presence at the workplace is not necessary for the work to continue, they must be given a regular break of at least one hour during the shift, during which they may leave the workplace. The break may not be placed at the beginning or the end of the working day. The employer and the employee may agree on a shorter break of at least half an hour. On a working day longer than ten hours, the employee is additionally entitled to a break of no more than half an hour after eight hours of work. In shift work and period-based work, a shift longer than six hours includes a break of at least half an hour or an opportunity to eat during work (section 24). The roster records the time at which the break is intended to be taken.

The roster is employee-specific, even if it is drawn up as a single table for the whole unit. The entry has a direct effect on pay: where a weekly working time shorter than 40 hours has been agreed, additional work is work done beyond the regular working hours recorded in the shift roster, and where average regular working hours are used, daily overtime is work done beyond the regular daily working hours recorded in the roster (section 16). A wrong entry moves the overtime threshold.

What period the roster is drawn up for

The shift roster is drawn up for the same period as the working-time adjustment plan, unless that is extremely difficult because of the length of the adjustment period or the irregularity of the work. It must be drawn up for as long a period as possible, but for at least a week (section 30). A week is therefore a floor, not a target: if the work is known six weeks ahead, the roster is made for six weeks.

When drawing up the roster, the employer must, at the request of the employee or their representative, give them an opportunity to state their opinion (section 30). In practice this means a draft stage in which wishes and swap requests are dealt with before the roster is confirmed.

Written notification at least a week in advance

The shift roster must be brought to the employees’ knowledge in writing in good time, no later than a week before the start of the period it covers (section 30). The deadline is counted backwards from the first day of the period: a three-week period beginning on Monday 5 October must be notified by Monday 28 September at the latest.

Written notification can be on paper or electronic, provided the employee receives the roster. Record the publication time and notification method to help demonstrate that the deadline was met.

Failing to draw up a shift roster is a working hours violation for which the employer or their representative may be sentenced to a fine (section 44). Compliance is supervised by the occupational safety and health authority (section 47).

Changes after publication

Changing a published shift roster rests on two grounds: after notification, the roster may be changed only if the employee consents to it or for a weighty reason relating to the arrangement of work (section 30).

Request and record consent clearly. If a change relies on a weighty work-organisation reason, assess the circumstances and document it. Sickness absence or an order cancellation does not automatically justify any change. Also check the collective agreement and possible compensation duties.

Note. An employee has the right, for a justified personal reason, to refuse additional work on the days off marked in the shift roster (section 17). A shift requested on a day off is therefore a different matter from moving an existing shift.

Variable working hours require consent as soon as the shift is entered

If the working hours agreed in the employment contract vary (a so-called variable working hours agreement, for example 0–30 hours a week), entering a shift in the shift roster requires the employee’s consent if the working time would fall outside the agreed weekdays or times of day, or would exceed the minimum working time agreed in the contract (section 30 a). Consent may be given separately for each occasion or for a short period at a time.

Cancellation has a rule of its own. If the employer cancels a shift entered in the roster or otherwise agreed later than 48 hours before the shift begins, and the employee is not considered to have a right to pay or compensation, they must be paid reasonable compensation for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation (section 30 a). Under variable working hours agreements, removing a shift from the roster is therefore as binding an act in the calendar as adding one.

Average working hours: the adjustment plan first

Where regular working hours have been arranged as an average and neither flexitime nor flexible working hours are in use, the employer must draw up in advance a plan for how the working time is adjusted (section 29). The plan must state at least the regular working hours for each week, and it is drawn up for the time within which working hours even out to the statutory or agreed average.

When the adjustment plan is prepared and changed, the shop steward, the elected representative, another employee representative or the employees must be given an opportunity to state their opinion, and sufficient time must be reserved for studying the draft. The employee must be informed of a change in good time (section 29).

The plan and the roster are different documents: the adjustment plan gives the weekly hour totals for the whole adjustment period, the shift roster gives the times of day.

Fixed hours, flexitime and flexible working hours

In work where the placement of regular working hours does not vary, or where flexitime or flexible working hours are applied, the shift roster may be issued as valid until further notice (section 30). In an office where working hours are 08:00–16:00 every week, one roster is therefore enough, and it is updated only when the times change.

An agreement on flexitime or flexible working hours replaces the shift roster when the principles applied to the placement of working time are stated in it (section 30). This is the reason to write into the flexitime agreement the fixed working hours, the flexitime limits, the placement of the flexitime and the placement of the rest periods (section 12) precisely enough that the agreement answers the question of when the work is done.

Rest periods set the limits for planning

Three rest-period rules decide which shift combinations are possible.

Daily rest reduced to nine hours in period-based work, and reductions under section 25(2) and (3), must be compensated as required by law. Replacement rest follows the next daily rest or, for weighty organisational reasons, within 14 days. The same compensation rule does not apply to an employee-initiated reduction to seven hours in flexitime or flexible work.

From draft to working-time records

Six stages, whose order decides which entries payroll and any later dispute will rely on.

1. Draft. The supervisor plans the shifts for the whole adjustment period within the limits of staffing, competence and rest periods. Under average working hours, the adjustment plan must be drawn up in advance, before the roster.
2. Stating an opinion. The employee or their representative is, on request, given an opportunity to state an opinion on the draft, and sufficient time is reserved for studying the draft adjustment plan.
3. Publication. The roster is brought to the employees’ knowledge in writing no later than a week before the period starts. From the moment of publication the roster binds both parties.
4. Change. After publication, a change requires the employee’s consent or a weighty reason relating to the arrangement of work. Record the time of the change, the ground for it and who was informed of it.
5. Actual hours. Compare hours worked with the plan and investigate differences. Not every difference is additional work or overtime; classification depends on the arrangement and applicable thresholds.
6. Working-time records. The hours worked and the compensation paid for them are recorded per employee (section 32). The shift roster says what was intended; the working-time records say what was done.

Example: three-week period-based work, 120 hours

In this example, the work qualifies for period-based working time under section 7 of the Working Hours Act. Regular hours are capped at 120 over three weeks. Period-based work may also be based on an applicable collective agreement or a statutory exemption permit; wanting to schedule three weeks at a time is not sufficient.

One employee, a three-week period, shifts M = 07:00–15:00 and E = 13:00–21:00.

The period totals 120 working hours. In this example, the eight-hour shifts include an opportunity to eat during work, counted as working time (section 24). Meals are scheduled at 11:00–11:30 on morning shifts and 17:00–17:30 on evening shifts. If these shifts instead included a half-hour break excluded from working time, the period would total 113 working hours.

Weekly rest is met in each week: in week 1, 40 hours accrue from the end of Thursday’s shift to the start of Saturday’s shift, in week 2, 46 hours from Tuesday to Thursday, and in week 3, 36 hours from the end of Friday’s shift to Sunday morning. Each exceeds the 35-hour requirement.

Daily rest between an evening shift and a morning shift. The Saturday evening shift in week 1 ends at 21:00. The Sunday shift starts at 08:00, so 11 hours of rest accrue and the main rule in section 25 is met. If the same Sunday shift started at 07:00, there would be 10 hours of rest. In period-based work the rest may be shortened to nine hours for reasons relating to the arrangement of work, but then the compensatory rest period must be given in connection with the next daily rest or within 14 days at the latest. Under general working hours the same combination would have to be planned differently.

Retention, availability at the workplace and the employee’s right to see the entries

The employer must keep shift rosters at least until the end of the limitation period for claims laid down in section 40, unless the information appears in the working-time records (section 30). The limitation period is, while the employment relationship continues, two years from the end of the calendar year during which the right to compensation arose, and after the employment relationship has ended, two years from that end (section 40).

The working-time adjustment plan and the shift roster in use must be kept available to employees together with the Working Hours Act and the agreements generally applied at the workplace (section 43). The employee also has the right, on request, to receive a written statement of the entries concerning them in the shift rosters and the working-time records, and the employer must, on request, provide the occupational safety and health authority and the shop steward or another employee representative with a copy of the working-time records, the adjustment plan and the shift roster (section 32).

Also check the collective agreement

Many sectoral collective agreements contain their own provisions on the notice period, the length of the period, the structure of shifts and the procedure for changes. They may be longer or more detailed than the requirements of the law, and then the agreement’s provision governs the planning. Section 34 of the Working Hours Act allows a national collective agreement to derogate from, among other things, regular working hours, daily breaks, daily and weekly rest, the adjustment plan and the shift roster. In your own sector’s agreement, check at least the notice period, the length of the adjustment period and what the agreement says about changing a published roster.

Checklist

Go through these before you publish the shift roster.

• Length of the period. The roster covers the same period as the adjustment plan, and at least a week.
• Start and end times. The start and end of regular working hours are recorded for every working day of every employee.
• Times of the breaks. In shifts longer than six hours the break is recorded with its times of day, and it is not at the start or the end of the shift.
• Daily rest. Within the 24 hours following the start of each shift there are at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest; a shortening in period-based work has a reason and a compensatory rest recorded.
• Weekly rest. Every employee has at least 35 hours of continuous free time once during seven days.
• Period cap. The total hours of the period stay within the limit for regular working hours (in period-based work 120 hours in three weeks or 80 hours in two).
• Stating an opinion. Employees or their representatives have had the opportunity to comment on the draft, if they asked for it.
• Variable working hours consents. Shifts exceeding the minimum working time and shifts outside the agreed times have been entered only after consent.
• The deadline. The moment of publication is at least seven days before the first day of the period.
• Written form and availability. Every employee can read the roster, and the roster is available to employees at the workplace.
• The collective agreement’s own limits. The sector agreement’s notice period and planning limits have been checked and are met.
• Retention. The published version is kept until the limitation period for claims ends, or the same information appears in the working-time records.