Offer of work to existing employees

(a) Written statements required Upon hiring an employee, an employer shall— (1) obtain a written statement of the employee’s desired number of weekly work hours and the days and times the employee is available to work; (2) notify the employee that this written statement may be modified in writing at any time during employment; and (3) specify the process to modify the written statement. (b) Offer of desired weekly work hours to existing employees (1) In general Except as provided in paragraph (2), an employer shall schedule an employee to work the number of weekly hours identified by the employee as desired weekly hours in a written statement under subsection (a) prior to hiring any new employee from an external applicant pool, including hiring through the use of a temporary services or staffing agency, or contracting with a contractor or subcontractor, to work such hours. (2) Exceptions An employer may hire an individual as a new employee, or engage a contractor or subcontractor, to perform work for the employer if— (A) the employer needs to fill hours for which no existing employees who have provided written statements under subsection (a) are available based on such written statements; (B) all existing employees who have provided written statements under subsection (a) lack, and cannot obtain with reasonable training, the qualifications necessary to perform the work; or (C) scheduling any such employee to perform the work would require providing such employee overtime compensation at a rate not less than one and one half times the regular rate at which the employee is employed, in accordance with section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 207) or any State law. (c) Compensation required (1) In general Except as provided in paragraph (2), an employee (referred to in this subsection as an existing employee) who is not scheduled for the desired number of total weekly work hours identified by the employee in a written statement under subsection (a) shall be compensated for each hour worked by a newly hired employee, contractor, or subcontractor hired after the existing employee so identified such number of hours, during an hour that such existing employee identified in a written statement under such subsection as an hour for which the employee is available to work. (2) Exception An employer shall not be required to compensate an existing employee under paragraph (1) for any hour of work for which— (A) the employee lacks, or cannot obtain with reasonable training, the qualifications necessary to perform the work; (B) scheduling such employee to perform the work would require providing the employee overtime compensation as described in subsection (b)(2)(C); (C) the employer made a reasonable attempt to contact the employee to work such hour and was unable to reach the employee; or (D) the employee was otherwise no longer available. (d) Definition For purposes of this section, the terms written, with respect to a statement, and writing mean a printed or printable communication in physical or electronic form.