Employee work schedule: how to create it and not violate the Labor Code

A work schedule is a document that describes an employee’s routine: when the workday begins and ends, how long a shift lasts, what days to work, and when to rest. Without a clear schedule, it’s impossible to organize a team’s work and comply with labor laws.

The specific work schedule is set out in the company’s internal regulations or directly in the employee’s contract. This is not just a formality: in a dispute, the court primarily looks at the stated terms.

For a company, a schedule serves several purposes. First, it helps distribute the workload evenly among employees and avoids situations where some work overtime while others are idle. Second, it allows for the flexible allocation of resources to match the workload. Call centers know their peak hours in advance and increase shifts during peak times. IT companies plan for additional support during the post-release period, when the volume of inquiries is predictably increased.

For employees, a transparent work schedule means predictability. According to VTsIOM, 31% of people value a convenient schedule when choosing a company. When an employee doesn’t know what shift they’ll be working next week, it creates stress and reduces loyalty to the employer.

In practice, establishing work schedules is the intersection of business, employee, and legal interests. Finding a balance between these and creating the right schedule is one of the key tasks of an HR manager. The “HR Manager” course provides a deeper understanding of how to organize work with employees. Classes teach how to build HR processes and work with a team in a real-world business setting.

Who and how should draw up employee schedules depends on the size of the organization and how HR processes are organized within it.

The smaller the company, the shorter the chain: in small teams, the manager personally sets the schedule. In medium-sized businesses, this task is divided between department heads and HR. In corporations, specialized teams within the HR function exist for this purpose.

In practice, to draft a document in accordance with the law, a three-step process is used:

Regardless of who fills out the schedule, the employer is legally responsible for the schedule’s accuracy. If the document is found to contain any violations of the Labor Code, the organization, not the person who prepared the schedule, will be held liable.

The choice of employee work schedule is influenced by several factors that must be considered before the first version of the document is correctly drafted.

• The specifics of the business and the company’s operating hours. The starting point is how the workflow is generally structured. A hospital, warehouse, or call center can’t close at 6:00 PM and go on weekends, so they need shifts. A marketing agency’s office fits perfectly into a standard five-day workweek.
• Seasonality and workload fluctuations. Many companies experience uneven workloads. Accounting tends to work more intensively during reporting periods, retail during holidays, and logistics before New Year’s sales. Some schedule changes are permanent, while others are seasonal: the company adjusts its schedule to current needs. It’s important to factor this into the work schedule in advance rather than rearranging it at the last minute.
• Legal restrictions. Some employees may be entitled to special conditions by law. For example, those working in hazardous conditions (levels 3 and 4) must work no more than 36 hours per week, and pregnant women are entitled to a reduced workday. Similar provisions apply to minors, disabled individuals, and parents of children under three.
• Employee preferences. Formally, employers aren’t obligated to coordinate schedules with each employee. But in practice, ignoring the team’s personal circumstances means high turnover and low engagement. This is especially true for flexible work arrangements, which require mutual agreement.

Choosing staff work schedules is a legally binding process. Failure to comply with the procedure can result in fines, so it’s important to draft them correctly.

• Observe Labor Code regulations. All employees generally work a standard schedule of no more than 40 hours per week. For shift work, an employer may establish a flexible scheduling system; however, the FLSA requires that any hours worked over 40 within a single, designated 7-day workweek must be compensated at the overtime rate of 1.5 times the employee’s regular pay rate. Under federal law, averaging hours over two or more weeks to avoid overtime is prohibited. While there are no federal limits on the number of consecutive shifts an adult employee can work or mandatory weekly rest periods, employers must accurately track all hours and comply with any stricter state-level scheduling and rest break regulations.
• Under federal law, averaging hours over two or more weeks to avoid overtime is prohibited. While there are no federal limits on the number of consecutive shifts an adult employee can work, or on mandatory weekly rest periods, employers must accurately track all hours and comply with any stricter state-level scheduling and rest break regulations.
• Consider the production calendar. When drafting documents, it’s important to consider the official production calendar, which takes into account both holidays and rescheduled days off. Deviating from this data will lead to errors in calculating working hours and, consequently, to incorrect payroll.
• Document the schedule. The chosen schedule is set out in corporate documents or an employment contract, and if the company has a trade union, the shift schedule is also coordinated with it.
• Communicate the work schedule to staff. If employees work shifts, it’s important to notify them at least 30 days before the start of their shifts; for other schedules, at least two weeks in advance. Employees must confirm their knowledge of their work schedule by signing a form.
• Correctly formalize changes. When an employer changes the work schedule on its own initiative, the employee must receive at least two months’ written notice. The new terms are formalized in an additional agreement or order.

Small companies still use Excel to create schedules. But the more employees, the more varied the schedule, and the more complex the workload, the higher the risk of errors: overtime, overlapping shifts, and violations of labor regulations. This is where automation comes in handy, ensuring accurate documentation.

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