Rule: Maximum Hours Within Window

This rule limits the number of hours that an employee can be scheduled in a specified time window.

The rule calculates violations using the start time of each shift as the beginning of a window. Therefore, if the window is set for 24 hours and the employee is scheduled to begin working Monday at 8:00 AM, the rule counts the total hours worked from Monday at 8:00 AM to Tuesday at 8:00 AM against the maximum hours specified.

The DAY_WEEK_STARTS parameter has no effect on this rule. This rule starts a window of time when the shift starts. The window extends for the appropriate number of hours in the future. In this case, 24 hours in the future. Schedule compliance then counts all scheduled hours in all shifts between the start time of the window and the end time of the window, without regard for the DAY_START_TIME or the DAY_WEEK_STARTS parameters.

Daylight saving time (DST)

The Maximum Hours Within Window rule determines the windows to validate against by adding the hours of the window to the start time. When the transition to or from daylight saving time (DST) falls within the window, the system will account for it.

  • Example A: Start time is 7:00 AM on the day before the beginning of DST in the spring. The window duration is 24 hours. The actual window the rule will validate against will be from 7:00 AM the day before the DST date to 8:00 AM on the DST date. This is still 24 hours because an hour was lost during the transition.
  • Example B: Start time is 7:00 AM on the day before the end of DST in the fall. The window duration is 24 hours. The actual window the rule will validate against will be from 7:00 AM the day before the DST date to 6:00 AM on the DST date. This is still 24 hours because an hour was gained during the transition.

When the /system/modules/compliance/HONOR_DST parameter is set to false, the validation window for this rule will not be adjusted for the gained/lost DST hours.

Violation Area

Violations count against the appropriate period.

Example

The maximum scheduled hours are set to 12 and the window hours are set to 24 and two shifts are 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM.

In this example, Window 1 violates the rule, as there are 20 scheduled hours in the first 24-hour window. Window 2 passes the rule as there are 12 scheduled hours in the second 24-hour window.