© 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. | 123 engineer were “machines,” and therefore the facility in which the engineer worked qualified as a “mechanical establishment.”717 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.718 Employees may not waive their day of rest and are prohibited from working on their designated day.719 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. 720 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 and the provision has not been litigated, 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.721 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. 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 717 Bujold v. EMC Corp., Civ. A. No. 06-2166-BLS2, 2007 WL 4415635, *13-15 (Mass. Super. Dec. 7, 2007). 718 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 51. 719 Id. 720 M.G.L. ch. 149, §§ 47-48. 721 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 47.
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