Opening in Puerto Rico

For companies that have plans on opening up operations in Puerto Rico… make sure you understand your risks. 

Did you know that you can’t schedule PT employees to work more than 22 hours per week if they work on a Sunday? Or that if an employee works part of their lunch they are entitled to double-time for that portion?  For example, if an employee is scheduled for lunch from 12-1 and they come back at 12:45 to work, you have to pay them twice their hourly rate for that 15 minute period.

As you can see, the Puerto Rico Department of Labor has very strict and specific rules around paying and scheduling employees.  It does not take lightly to big companies coming in and taking advantage of their people.  So if you get caught, you’ll pay the price… and pay dearly.

If an employee files a complaint and the DOL decides to audit your records, the audit process is very manual and cumbersome (but then which audit isn’t).  But if you have a manual system (like most companies) of capturing your employee’s time or creating schedules for them, the process will be exponentially costly and time consuming.  One retailer I know spent 6 months going through their manual timecards when the PR DOL came knocking on their door.

The good news is… as long as you schedule and pay people correctly, you won’t have any problems.

But how do you do that?  Do you have a good Workforce Management system with all the schedule rules and all the pay rules?  Can your system be configured to accommodate these rules or does it need some customization?  Can it prevent human error?

These are all things that you need to think about as part of your strategy for opening up a store in Puerto Rico.  Also, you need to consider whether your people really know and understand the Puerto Rico rules?  Do you have people on the ground that know them and can interpret them?  Do you have people that have been there and done it before?

No matter how much you plan and anticipate, you should expect that your first month will be a learning experience as you acclimatize yourselves to the way things are done down there.  Make sure you have the right team on your side and get all the facts before you plan and implement your strategy.