SEATTLE, Wash.—The percentage of Seattle workers who got their schedules at two weeks in advance went up by about 20% after the city’s “secure scheduling” law went into effect, according to a survey released Dec. 27 by the city auditor’s office. The law requires retail and restaurant chains to give employees their schedules at least two weeks in advance. The survey, conducted by the University of Washington’s West Coast Poverty Center, found that before it took effect in mid-2017, 45.7% of the several hundred respondents said they learned when they’d be working that far in advance. A year later, 54.8% did. In similar cities without such laws, that number stayed at about 45%. “This shows us that employers can comply with the law and that the law can improve the lives of workers,” Samantha Grad, political director of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, told the Seattle Times. The measure also regulates shift changes, being on call, and “clopenings,” when workers have to come in at opening time after staying until closing the previous night. But the city relies on worker complaints to enforce it, and the survey found that only 44% of respondents knew about it. Read more
