Restoring a Fair Workweek

Actually, these practices have been common for years.

And these practices make it hard to work more than one part-time job, or go to school to get a better education.

http://populardemocracy.org/campaign/restoring-fair-workweek

The Fair Workweek Initiative

Low-wage workers and their families continue to struggle, even as the US economy recovers from the Great Recession of 2008. While stable, middle-income jobs were lost in significant numbers, the recovery to date has been built on the dramatic expansion of low-wage, no-benefit jobs in industries like retail, restaurants, and healthcare, which rely on large part-time workforces. These fast growing low-wage industries are shifting to just-in-time scheduling practices, which in turn fuel massive under-employment and attendant economic insecurity for workers.

A just-in-time workforce experiences profound insecurity: workers cannot predict their hours or pay from day to day, make time for schooling or to care for children or family, secure a second job, or qualify for promotions to full-time employment. The negative impact on earnings is not simply due to fewer hours of work: America’s 28 million part-time workers earn on average a third less per hour than their full-time counterparts, and do not qualify for critical employer-provided benefits. Low-wage women and workers of color, especially in Black communities, are especially hard hit by this trend.

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Among hourly part-time workers, more than four in five (83%) reported that their weekly work hours fluctuated by an average of 87% (when compared to their usual hours). The more workers' weekly hours fluctuate, the more likely they know their work schedule only a week or less in advance. This makes it impossible to predict either their schedule or their income.


http://populardemocracy.org/news/congress-consider-bill-help-part-timers

Congress to Consider Bill to Help Part-Timers

Jul 21, 2014

New York Post - July 22, 2014, by James Covert - Part-timers with increasingly unpredictable work schedules are taking their beef to Washington.

A congressional bill is slated for introduction Tuesday that would give workers more control over their hourly schedules at big retailers like Walmart, Home Depot and JCPenney.

Led by Walmart, major chains increasingly are switching around workers’ shifts on short notice, making it difficult and often impossible for part-timers to work second jobs.

The practice — common in retail, restaurant, janitorial and housekeeping jobs — has hit working mothers especially hard, according to critics.

Unpredictable work hours make it difficult to schedule everything from babysitters to doctor’s appointments.

“I think it’s gotten to a crisis point,” said Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Workweek Initiative, a new campaign by the Center for Popular Democracy, adding workers need “some amount of predictability and stability in our work hours so we can live and manage our lives.”

The bill, sponsored by US Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), would require employers to give an extra hour of pay to workers summoned less than 24 hours in advance.

The bill would also guarantee a minimum of four hours’ pay if an employee is sent home early — a frequent occurrence at restaurants.