New York Employment Attorney Blog
On December 6, the New York Council introduced several bills as part of New York City’s “Fair Work Week” initiative. The bills primarily apply to certain fast food employers, as well as some retail establishments. These bills may never be enacted into law, and are still subject to negotiation and debate:
- Int. 1384-2016 – Allows fast food employees to designate amounts from wages for contribution to a non-for-profit of their choice, and employers are required to remit such amounts.
- Int. 1387-2016 – Bans “on-call scheduling” for retail employees, and prohibits providing retail employees with less than 20 hours of work during any 14-day work period (not counting time the employee voluntarily takes off).
- Int. 1388-2016– Bans so-called “clopenings” for fast food employees. The bill prohibits fast food employees from working back-to-back shifts when the first shift closes the restaurant and the second shift opens it the following day, where there are less than 11 hours in between. If an employee is required to work a clopening, he or she will have to be paid $100 in addition to his or her earned wages.
- Int. 1395-2016 – Requires fast food employers with available hours to offer shifts to existing employees before hiring new employees. The bill seeks to encourage the full-time employment of part-time workers. Additional part-time workers could only be hired following an employer’s unsuccessful attempts at providing additional hours to existing workers.
- Int. 1396-2016 – Requires that fast food employers provide advance notice of work schedules to employees as well as a wage “premium” when schedules are changed after the required notices.
- Int. 1399-2016 – Gives employees the right to request a modification of their work arrangements involving scheduling, different locations, and hours, without fear of reprisal. The bill establishes an “interactive process,” that requires a good faith response from an employer. In addition, the bill gives employees the “right to receive” certain changes in work arrangements in the event of a childcare emergency, personal health emergency, or in situations where an employee of family member has been a victim of a family offense, sexual offense or stalking.
We will be following these bills very closely and report back periodically on developments.