This Retail Workers Bill of Rights is an idea that's long overdue.
San Francisco just created some of the country’s toughest protections for retail workers
By Emily Badger
Low-wage, part-time jobs in retail can be among the most maddening jobs. You don't control your hours, or how many of them you get, or when you're expected to work them. You may come in for an eight-hour shift and be sent home after four — with only a half-day's income. You may be told, on a moment's notice, that you're working Thanksgiving after all. And all of this means that it's hard to plan the rest of your time, including time you may need for a second job.
Unpredictability is a big part of retail work, undermining the ability of workers to plan night school, or child care. But now one city has adopted a law trying to rein it in. On Tuesday, city supervisors in — surprise! — San Francisco adopted two pieces of legislation, sponsored by different backers, that together make up the "Retail Workers Bill of Rights." A quick summary from the San Francisco Business Times:
[Eric] Mar's ordinance requires businesses to pay employees for four hours if an employee is either on-call or sent home early, and mandates businesses to offer extra hours to part-time workers before hiring new employees. [David] Chiu's legislation calls on formula retail stores to post employees' schedules 14 days in advance, give workers extra pay for changing a schedule at the last minute, and allow the same access to requests for time off and particular work schedules to part-time workers that they do for full-time employees.
Its always seemed odd to me that only employers are permitted to plan ahead, and employees are expected to scramble and reformulate their plans with little notice.
Victory! Retail Workers Bill of Rights Unanimously Passes First Vote in San Francisco
by Jonathan Williams
The package of bills, advanced by community-labor coalition Jobs With Justice San Francisco, is a common sense approach to help employees of massively profitable chain stores and restaurants achieve fair and consistent schedules with enough hours to plan their lives and take care of their loved ones.
In a city boasting the second highest income inequality in the nation, these policies could usher in reliable and sufficient schedules for more than 40,000 people working in San Francisco’s chain stores and restaurants. Building upon the $15 minimum wage increase approved by voters earlier this month, these bills will mark significant progress toward making San Francisco a great place to live, work and raise a family.
My hat's off to Jobs With Justice. The new ordinance will take effect in 6 months. Lets hope other cities and states follow San Francisco's lead.