Workers push for state law to get more notice of their shifts
Brenton Nichol worked for four years at a Tacoma grocery store, and April Frazier is a server at a national chain restaurant in Olympia. Both said they have struggled when they haven’t received enough notice of their work schedules.
“Hours were highly volatile,” said Nichol, 36. “They could fluctuate wildly from one week to the next. It just makes it difficult to do anything in life outside work. My social life virtually disappeared because I could never plan anything ahead.”
Frazier said for several years she didn’t get her schedule as a server for the following week until about four days before it began, but things have improved recently.
“It makes it hard to go to family events or schedule a doctor’s appointment without having to lose money on giving away shifts or trying to find a shift,” said Frazier, 47.
Nichol and Frazier are among the workers who support a bill pending in the Legislature that would require large retail, hotel, and food service companies to provide at least 14 days notice of shifts to employees covered under the state’s minimum-wage law. The measure also would require employers to “make every effort” to schedule existing employees for the hours they want to work before hiring new workers. Seattle and Oregon have similar laws.
In the first year, SB 5717 would apply to companies with at least 500 employees. In the second year, businesses with 250 employees or more would be required to comply. Franchisees with less than 250 employees would be covered starting in the third year.
“Regular people across our state think that you should be able to get two weeks’ notice of what your employment is going to be so you can plan child care, so you can show up for that coaching volunteer position,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Rebecca Saldana, D-Seattle.
The “secure scheduling” bill, however, faces opposition not just from businesses, but from some workers in the restaurant industry.
At a recent Senate committee hearing, several workers said they enjoy the flexibility they have in their schedules and aren’t suited to a 9-to-5 shift.
“This is a set of rules that workers in the full-service industry never asked for, and many have not even heard of,” said Simone Barron, co-founder of the Full Service Workers Alliance in Seattle.
Lawmakers also heard from Steve Simmons, who with his wife, Shirley, owns CG Public House & Catering in Kennewick. The firm caters to people who have the premium seats at Washington State University football games in Pullman. He said television networks determine the time of the game, which can vary from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and his company doesn’t know that time until the Tuesday before a Saturday game.
As a result, it would be “almost impossible” to put together a schedule that wouldn’t violate the bill, Simmons said. He referred to provisions in the bill in which companies would have to compensate employees or pay a civil penalty for violations.
Before leaving his job at the Tacoma grocery store, Nichol said he concluded that the management didn’t care about the lives of their employees, particularly the “little anxieties that we have when we’re scheduling our time and paying our bills.” He said he and his fellow employees lived paycheck to paycheck.
“Sometimes being able to go out and grab a beer with your brother one night a week, that’s all you got and you look for that one thing and when you can’t get it, it’s going to be a depressing week,” he said.
Frazier said the schedules of managers at the restaurant where she works in Olympia are posted weeks in advance.
“Why is it OK for them and not for us?” she said.