After months of research and surveys, a city of Seattle committee has presented a proposal to regulate worker schedules in efforts to achieve more predictability for employees of food and retail services.
In a recent survey, many workers said they cannot access enough hours of work at their jobs to pay their bills. Some told KIRO 7 that they work two jobs to try to earn more, but schedules would frequently be changed or hours would be cut at the last minute.
Key features of the legislation include:
- Right to rest between shifts: Employees would not be scheduled for shifts separated by less than 10 hours unless the employee has requested it or consented to it.
- Advance notice: Existing employees would get 14 days' advance notice.
- Access to hours: Employer must offer additional available hours to existing employees before hiring additional employees or subcontractors.
The rules would apply to employers of large quick-food service, such as drinking places, mobile food service and limited-service restaurants. They also apply to retail employers with more than 500 employees worldwide. Full-service restaurants with more than 500 employees and more than 40 locations worldwide are included as well.
Those workers covered by the minimum wage ordinance are the same people covered by this policy.
In cases where hours are added within 14 days, employers would need to pay the employee the equivalent of an extra hour, on top of wages for the hours worked.
If hours are reduced with less than 14 days’ notice, employers would need to pay the employee half the wages that the person would have earned in those missing hours. For example, someone who is sent home two hours early would still earn one hour of pay for that time.
One exception to these rules is when employees initiate changes or swaps.
Employers are also exempt if they send a mass text or email to employees asking for last-minute volunteers to cover more hours. If someone volunteers, then there is no penalty for the employer.
However, if the employer approaches an individual to ask him or her to cover a last-minute shift, that would be considered a sudden change and would incur that extra hour of pay.
As for offering additional hours to existing employees, employers would need to wait three days for employees to respond before hiring people externally.
But there is one way to hire people sooner. The business can maintain a list of existing employees who wish to be considered for more hours. If all the employees on that list turn down the extra hours, the employer can hire externally sooner than three days’ time.
“This ordinance strikes a good balance. We support it, because it recognizes that some employers in the city like ours are unionized and negotiate collective bargaining agreements,” said Randy Zeiler of Allied Employers. He spoke on behalf of Safeway, Albertson’s, Fred Myer and QFC.
Other business owners, like Molly Moon, of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, and Sara Nelson, of Fremont Brewing, supported the effort but not some of the details.
While neither of their businesses would be affected under this law, they remained engaged in the discussion in case future expansions of the ordinance would include them.
Moon told the committee, “I really feel that employers should be able to require a good-faith effort from our employees to cover the shifts they are unable to work.”
David Jones’ two Subway franchises do fall under the ordinance. He said he’s glad that the committee tweaked one part of the rule, regarding the waiting period for hiring more workers.
But he’s still concerned about unintended consequences.
“You’re going to have employers end up cutting hours. They’ll make decisions on whether they can afford an extra hour of pay,” Jones said. “Managers that are on salary that will probably end up picking up some hours, which will cause some problems with the managers.”
Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Lorena Gonzalez said the Office of Labor Standards will be in charge of enforcing the rules.
But the office, which is also responsible for investigating the city’s minimum wage violations, is understaffed.
There will also be a need to spend money on educating the public, so that workers and employers understand what’s expected. But no fiscal note has been developed yet to determine how much that will be.
Cox Media Group
