How Fair Workweek Affects Certain Industries

Emeryville, California along with New York City enacted “Fair Workweek” ordinances that will set scheduling requirements for employers in certain industries, including retail and fast food. Several bills were enacted together and collectively they are called the “Fair Workweek” legislation. Scheduling ordinances have previously been enacted in Seattle and San Francisco. Your payroll department needs to be aware of these ordinances as more cities are currently enacting these “fair workweek” ordinances.

In Emeryville, California, The Fair Workweek Ordinance was enforced July 1, 2017 and covered employers in retail firms with 56 or more employees globally, and fast food firms with 56 or more employees globally as well as 20 or more employees in Emeryville specifically.

The ordinance requires employers to provide good faith estimates of work schedules and allow employees to request modifications to the schedule. Employers must also provide notice of any changes to schedules and employees have the right to decline any unscheduled hours, if given less than 14 days notice.

Compensation must be given if the employee works the changed schedule and if :

  • The changes are made with less than 14 days notice, but at least 24 hours notice, then one hour of predictability pay is required to the employee
  • The changes are made with less than 24 hours notice, four hours or the number of hours in the scheduled shift, whichever is less, of predictability pay is owed to the employee.

[Ordinance No. 16-007, L. 2017]

Effective in NYC on November 26, 2017, these bills include retail employers and fast food employers [Bill Nos. 1384-2016, 1387-2016, 1388-2016, 1395-2016, 1396-2016, L. 2017].

Some key elements in these ordinances include:

Retail employers with 20 or more employees at one or more stores in NYC cannot use on-call scheduling and employers are also prohibited from canceling an employee’s shift or requiring an employee to come to work with less than 72 hours’ notice.

Fast food employers with 30 or more establishments nationally cannot make changes to employee schedules. Employers are required to pay premiums to the employee from $10 to $75 for each change to the schedule. The premium amount depends on how much notice is given (less than 14 days, 7 days, or 24 hours), and whether hours are added or subtracted to a shift, as well as whether a shift is changed or canceled. The employer is required to pay these wages at the same time that the employer is scheduled to pay an employee, however it must be noted separately on the pay statement.

For more information regarding how Fair Workweek may affect you, please call Malcolm or Scott today at 800-451-1136.

Written by:

Scott Evers

Scott Evers

Chief Distribution Officer

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