Legislation Would Make California the First in the Nation to Require Two Week Scheduling Notice for Employees Dealing with Work Schedule Uncertainty
Sacramento – Assemblymembers David Chiu (D – San Francisco) and Dr. Shirley Weber (D – San Diego) today introduced AB 357, first-in-the-nation state legislation that would require food and retail establishments with 500 or more employees in California to provide at least two weeks scheduling notice for their workers and additional pay for last minute schedule changes. According to a recent study by UC Berkeley’s Labor Center titled “Shelved: How Wages and Working Conditions for California’s Food Retail Workers have Declined as the Industry has Thrived,” workers in those industries face declining wages, increased poverty and overall economic uncertainty.
“Without fair and predictable work schedules, more and more Californians, particularly part-time and low-wage workers, are struggling to plan for basic life necessities, like child care or a much-needed second job,” said Assemblymember Chiu. “California can lead the way once again by providing for fair scheduling for the men and women on the front lines of an increasingly unequal economy.”
“It’s an unfortunate economic reality that part-time work isn’t just for teenagers anymore. Part-time workers are now adults who may require multiple jobs to support themselves and their families,” said Assemblymember Weber. “This abusive practice of last-minute scheduling hobbles workers who are taking the initiative to support themselves, and requires taxpayer subsidy in the form of greater need for public assistance for those who cannot. These workers need scheduling far enough in advance to work those other jobs, to arrange childcare and transportation, and to pursue education and training. AB 357 will facilitate that.”
Since the Great Recession, new employer practices and the rise of hourly work have changed California’s workforce. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the state now has the largest percentage of hourly workers in the country, and since 2006, the number of involuntary part-time workers in California has tripled.
“With 64 percent of poor Californians living in working homes, we have to find ways to support economic advancement among low-income, hourly workers,” said Jessica Bartholow of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, a co-sponsor of the bill. “This bill will allow workers to plan ahead so that they won’t fall behind, and empower them to take bolder steps on their path out of poverty.”
Fifty-nine percent of the national workforce is now paid hourly, and more than half of hourly workers are women. Simultaneously, employers are increasingly implementing ‘just in time’ and ‘on-call’ scheduling practices that often result in unpredictable schedules and last-minute changes to minimize labor costs.
“Right now, there are no protections for hourly workers in retail when it comes to last-minute changes to our schedules,” said Monica Jimenez, an Ontario resident and pharmacy technician at Rite Aid Pharmacy for six years, and the mother of two children ages 9 and 11. “This makes it very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to plan our weekly or even day-to-day schedule. That’s why we need schedule fairness in California.”
“This legislation is on the forefront in changing people’s lives for the better – especially part-time workers who literally are on their own in this new economy,” said Jim Araby, Executive Director of United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council. “As the largest private sector union in the country representing food retail grocery workers, we are proud to stand with Assemblymembers David Chiu and Dr. Shirley Weber to help move the Fair Schedule Act forward in the Legislature.”
Assemblymember David Chiu (D – San Francisco) is the Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore of the California State Assembly and represents the 17th Assembly District, which encompasses the eastern portion of San Francisco.
Here is the Text of the Bill
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
AB 357, as introduced, Chiu. Employment: work hours: scheduling.
Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a day’s work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed overtime compensation for additional hours worked.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to work hour scheduling for employees of food and general retail establishments.
Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Fair Schedule and Pay Equity Act.
SEC. 2.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) More than one–half of food and general retail store employees nationally receive their work schedules one week or less in advance.
(b) According to a recent survey of employees at chain stores and large stores, only 40 percent of those surveyed have consistent minimum hours per week and the vast majority of employees find out from a supervisor if they are needed for the on-call shift a mere two hours before the shift starts. Retail industry research in New York City found that more than one-half of family caregivers in the retail industry are required to be available for on-call shifts, forcing them to arrange for child or elder care at the last minute.
(c) Women are also more likely than men to work part time and experience unpredictability in their work schedules; one study found that women were 64 percent of the frontline part-time workforce among retail workers.
(d) Unpredictable scheduling practices and last-minute work schedule changes cause workers who are already struggling with low wages to live in a constant state of insecurity about when they will work or how much they will earn on any given day. These practices also make it hard for employees to plan their finances and to plan for and obtain child care. These practices also prevent part-time employees from pursuing educational opportunities or holding a second or third job that those workers may need to make ends meet.
(e) According to census data, since 2006, the number of “involuntary part time employees” in California nearly tripled to 1,100,000 employees. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than one-half of the retail workforce nationwide works fulltime, and the number of those working fewer than 20 hours per week has grown by 14 percent in the past decade.
(f) According to a survey conducted in 2014 of workers who sell food in California, the largest producer of food in the United States, they are twice as likely as the general populace to be unable to afford sufficient quantities of the food they sell or the healthy kinds of food their families need, despite the financial health of the food retail industry. According to this same survey, workers who were Black or Latino were far more likely to be sent home early with no pay, to have a shift canceled on the same day it is scheduled, to not be offered a lunch break, or not be paid for all hours worked.
(g) For these reasons, to ensure family and financial stability for a vast segment of California’s workforce, those employed by food and general retail establishments should be afforded some predictability and dignity in how they are scheduled to work.
