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

16 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. © 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP 3. Exemptions to the One Day of Rest in Seven and the Sunday Work Without a Day Off Provisions Certain employers that would otherwise be subject to these two provisions are not required to comply due to the continuous nature of their businesses. These employers may allow or require employees to work seven or more days in a row with no legal obligation to give them a day off within the six days following their work on a Sunday. Establishments and activities covered by this exemption include: • “[E]stablishments used for the manufacture or distribution of gas, electricity, milk, or water” • Hotels • The “transportation of food” • The “sale or delivery of food by or in establishments other than restaurants” 57 Employees whose duties include no work on Sunday other than the following are also exempted: • Janitorial work • Caring for machinery • Caring for live animals • The preparation, printing, publishing, selling, or delivering of newspapers • The provision of farm or personal service • The setting of sponges in bakeries • “[A]ny labor called for by an emergency that could not reasonably have been anticipated” • The work of “pharmacists employed in drug stores” 58 Under special circumstances, the Attorney General may also grant an exemption to the One Day of Rest in Seven statute for a period not to exceed sixty days. 59 57 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 49. There are other One Day of Rest in Seven provisions specific to certain indust ries. For example, Massachuset t s General Laws Chapter 160, Sect ion 184, provides that certain railway employees “shall be allowed two days of twenty-four hours each in every month for rest with regular compensat ion,” except during “ext raordinary” emergencies. 58 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 50. 59 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 51A.