Mass-Peculiarities: An Employers Guide to Wage & Hour Law in the Bay State 2022 Edition

© 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. | 15 and serving meals and any premises used in connection with the service of cleansing, dyeing, laundering or pressing fabrics or wearing apparel.” 51 An employer might review this list of covered establishments above and quickly conclude that this law does not apply to it. However, while courts have provided little guidance as to which businesses constitute “manufacturing, mechanical, or mercantile” establishments, the one court that has addressed this issue interpreted the term “mechanical establishment” more broadly than a quick review of the definition might suggest. The court held that the computers an employee used in his job as a technology support engineer were “machines,” and therefore the facility in which the engineer worked qualified as a “mechanical establishment.” 52 Employers subject to this provision must post a list in the workplace indicating which employees are required or allowed to work on Sunday and designating a day of rest for each. 53 Employees may not waive their day of rest and are prohibited from working on their designated day. 54 2. Sunday Work Without a Day Off A separate statutory provision, entitled “Sunday Work Without a Day Off,” requires that an employer give an employee a twenty-four hour period off within the six days following a Sunday on which the employee works. This statute applies to two categories of employees: (1) those engaged in any commercial occupation or in the work of any industrial process who do not work in a “manufacturing, mechanical, or mercantile establishment”; and (2) those engaged in transportation or communication work. 55 As with the One Day of Rest in Seven law, there are exceptions to this provision, which are discussed below. In addition, while “commercial occupation” is not defined in the statute, courts may interpret this term broadly, as with the term “mechanical.” Most employers therefore will likely fall under at least one of the two Day of Rest statutes. Unlike the One Day of Rest in Seven provision, employees may waive this right. 56 As with other waivers in the employment context, employers are advised to have employees sign a written acknowledgment that they are voluntarily waiving this right. 51 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 1. 52 Bujold v. EMC Corp., 23 Mass. L. Rpt r. 347, 2007 WL 4415635, at *13-15 (Mass. Super. Ct . Dec. 7, 2007). 53 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 51. 54 Id. 55 M.G.L. ch. 149, §§ 47-48. 56 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 47.