Family-friendly workplace ordinance and guidance

The Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance (FFWO) allows employees to request flexible or predictable work schedules to take on caregiving responsibilities for:

• A child or children for whom the employee has assumed parental responsibility;
• A person or persons with a serious health condition in a family relationship with the employee; or
• A parent aged 65 or older.

Employees can request changes in the terms and conditions of their employment that would provide flexibility or scheduling predictability to assist with caregiving responsibilities. Requests may include, but are not limited to, changes in:

• The number of hours the employee is required to work;
• The times the employee is required to work;
• Where the employee is required to work;
• Work assignments or other factors; or
• Predictability of the work schedule.

An employee may make up to two requests in a 12-month period, unless the employee experiences a major life event, in which case the employee may make an additional request during that timeframe.

An employee's request for a flexible or predictable schedule may be denied:

• If the employee has not worked for the City for at least six months;
• If the employee doesn't regularly work for at least eight hours per week;
• If the employee works in a job classification that has been exempted from the FFWO;
• For a bona fide business reason, including, but no limited to:
  • The identifiable cost due to the requested change in the term or condition of employment including, but not limited to, the cost of productivity loss, retraining or hiring other employees, or transferring employees from one facility to another;
  • Detrimental effects on the ability to meet customer or client demands;
  • The inability to organize work among other employees; or
  • The insufficiency of work to be performed during the time the employee proposes to work.

Employees requesting flexible or predictable work schedules must do so in writing using the Request for Flexible or Predictable Working Arrangement and Verification of Caregiving Responsibilities by Healthcare Provider forms below.

Learn more about the family-friendly workplace ordinance.