Right on time? Watch out for predictive scheduling laws

Several major cities (and one West Coast state) recently adopted predictive scheduling laws, which require employers to post work schedules more than one week in advance. While the Midwest region hasn’t yet seen an influx of the laws, you should pay attention because the trend is an employee-friendly response to the last-minute scheduling approach dominating industries in which customer demand is uncertain, such as restaurants and retail stores.

Potential impact on employees

When employers create last-minute work schedules or make late changes, employees can suffer unintended consequences. Sometimes, they make the time and effort to arrive at work only to learn they’re no longer needed. Or a worker might not be on the original schedule, but the employer later adds her without checking availability. If she doesn’t come in for the newly scheduled shift, the incident can be treated as a “no-call, no-show,” resulting in discipline.

Most predictive scheduling laws tend to focus on service industries that rely on an hourly workforce, including retail, food service, hospitality, and janitorial work. At least until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they were some of the fastest-growing industries in the United States, employing tens of millions of employees. Some data indicate one-third of all workers and more than one-half of all hourly workers get their schedules with less than a week’s notice.

All in the timing