A restrictive new scheduling proposal in Washington, D.C., could reduce job growth for the District’s restaurant industry, National Restaurant Association (NRA) representative said at a recent hearing.
The Hours and Scheduling Stability Act of 2015, pending in the D.C. City Council, would apply to restaurant chains with 20 or more stores and retail operations of at least five locations.
The bill would:
- Require employers to post work schedules 21 days in advance and pay employees for up to four hours if the schedule changes.
- Require a revised written schedule within 24 hours when changes are made.
- Require excessive record keeping of every shift for three years.
- Require employers to offer available work to already employed, qualified staff before hiring new employees or subcontractors.
The mandate would force restaurants to make fundamental changes to hiring practices, said Mike Whatley, NRA’s director of state and local government affairs in testimony before the Council’s Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
“Those changes could result in fewer people being hired to work at restaurants in the District and operators understaffing their restaurants,” Whatley said.
A similar mandate in San Francisco resulted in “extreme confusion” among affected restaurant operators, he testified. The San Francisco ordinance originally passed in 2014 but took effect last July. However, it is not yet fully enforced because of the confusion.
“San Francisco’s requirements are burdensome and call for extensive and often repetitive paperwork,” Whatley said.
One of the most time-consuming tasks for managers has been ensuring time records match posted schedules exactly.
“If they don’t, the manager must figure out why and solve it,” he said.
The provisions in the D.C. proposal go even further than in San Francisco, he added. It would require businesses to post employee schedules three weeks in advance vs. two weeks in San Francisco.
Whatley, who testified along with representatives from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington and the Buffalo Wild Wings chain, urged city council members to wait for the results in San Francisco before moving forward in the District.
The D.C. bill is one of several scheduling mandates currently under consideration in state and local legislatures. A similar bill also is pending in Congress.