122 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP In addition, employers that violate the rules regarding voluntariness of work (and previously, premium pay) may be fined up to $1,000.710 Enforcement of this provision is also entrusted to the Attorney General, and private parties have no standing to sue for alleged violations.711 In other words, employees may not directly sue their employer for a violation of the Blue Laws.712 However, employees may sue to recover premium pay earned prior to January 1, 2023 via the Wage Act.713 B. Day of Rest Laws In addition to the Sunday work laws, two statutory provisions mandate a day of rest for employees. 1. One Day of Rest in Seven The primary “One Day of Rest in Seven” provision requires that manufacturers, mechanical establishments, and mercantile establishments (other than those that fall under one of the exemptions specified below) give employees at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every seven-day period.714 The twenty-four hour time period must include an unbroken period comprising the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.715 The statute defines these categories as follows: (1) “‘manufacturing establishments’” are “any premises, room or place used for the purpose of making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing or adapting for sale any article or part thereof”; (2) “‘mechanical establishments’” are “any premises, other than a factory . . . where machinery is employed in connection with any work or process carried on therein”; and (3) “‘mercantile establishments’” are “any premises used for the purposes of trade in the purchase or sale of any goods or merchandise, and any premises used for a restaurant or for publicly providing and serving meals and any premises used in connection with the service of cleansing, dyeing, laundering or pressing fabrics or wearing apparel.”716 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 710 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 13 (applying penalties of M.G.L. ch. 149, § 180A). 711 Local 1445, United Food & Com. Workers Union v. Police Chief of Natick, 29 Mass. App. Ct. 554, 558 (1990). 712 An employee may, however, sue for retaliation if an employer terminates the employee’s employment, or otherwise takes action against the employee, for refusing to work on a Sunday or legal holiday to which the voluntariness requirement applies. 713 Sutton v. Jordan’s Furniture, Inc., 493 Mass. 728, 740 (2024). 714 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 48. 715 Id. 716 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 1.
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