Effort for Predictive Scheduling Expands

By Lehr Middlebrooks Vreeland & Thompson, P.C.

July 30, 2018

Chicago is the latest city to consider an ordinance requiring predictive scheduling at the workplace. Due in part to efforts by the United Food and Commercial Workers, Chicago Jobs with  Justice, and the Service  Employees International Union, predictive scheduling ordinances focus primarily on restaurant and retail industries, but also include non-hospitality employers.

Chicago’s predictive scheduling ordinance would require the following:

1. Provide the employee with a written estimate of the employee’s work schedule, average number of hours worked per week, whether  he  or  she will be on call, changes to shifts and overtime.
2. Give employees at least 14 days’ notice of a change in their shift.
3. If  employees do not receive the 14-day notice, they may decline to work the new shift without adverse consequences.  
4. If the employees’ shift is changed with less than 24 hours’ notice, the employee will receive an additional hour of pay for each hour of a predictable schedule which has been changed.
5. Provide an employee with the right to decline work unless the employee has had 11 hours free and clear of work between shifts.
6. Offer employees more hours of work before considering the use of temporary employees or outside contractors.

Similar ordinances have already passed in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. The trend is an outcome of  scheduling practices that primarily occur in restaurant and hospitality industries, where an hourly and daily  fluctuations of customer levels mean employee schedules may be cut or added to with little notice. Predictive  scheduling is also an area of focus for organized labor in these industries, so that individuals can have some basis for understanding what their pay will be on a range on a week-to-week basis.