Labor and Employment Law Update
09/20/2016
BIG BROTHER: Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance Will Be Watching Employers’
Every Move
On September 19, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a secure scheduling ordinance
that will regulate how large retail stores and food-service employers schedule workers working
in Seattle. Mayor Ed Murray is expected to sign the ordinance into law. The ordinance will
become effective on July 1, 2017.
The passage of this ordinance places Seattle at the forefront of a national trend. San Francisco
was the first city to implement secure scheduling legislation in an effort to create more
predictable work schedules. Because numerous other jurisdictions are considering similar
legislation including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, New York, North Carolina and
Washington D.C., employers in all industries around the country should monitor this
development.
Details About Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance1
Who Will Be Affected?
The Seattle ordinance will cover retail and quick-service-food employers with 500 or more
employees worldwide, and full-service restaurants with 500 or more employees and at least 40
locations worldwide. Hourly, nonexempt employees who work at least 50 percent of their time
at physical locations within Seattle-city limits are covered.
Good Faith Scheduling Estimates Will Be Required
Covered employers will have to provide “good faith estimates” of employees’ work schedules
upon hire and annually, estimating the median number of hours to be worked and whether the
employees’ schedule will include on-call shifts. Covered employers will not be bound by the
estimates, but they will need to engage in an interactive process with employees if they make
significant changes to the estimates. Covered employers will be required to post schedules 14
days in advance.
Payment for On-Call Time
Under the ordinance, covered employers will also be required to provide employees with two
weeks’ advance notice of all on-call shifts, which is defined to include all time on-site or off-site
that employees must be available to report to work. Employees will be entitled to predictability
pay for on-call shifts if they do not report to work.
Employees Entitled to Provide Input into Schedules
Employees will have the right to request input into their work schedules when they are hired and
during employment. Employees are permitted to request schedule changes for serious health
conditions, caregiver responsibilities, enrollment in career-related programs and employees’
other job(s). Employers will need to engage in an interactive process to discuss employees’
requests and offer bona fide reasons for declining scheduling requests.
The ordinance requires 10 hours between scheduled shifts, unless employees request or consent
to the shifts. Even then, consenting employees are entitled to time and one-half pay for all time
spent working that is less than 10 hours from their previous shifts.
Predictability Pay
The most taxing part of this ordinance is the “predictability pay” that employers must provide to
employees if they change employees’ work schedules. If employers add hours or change dates
or length of shifts, even if the employees do not lose any hours, employers owe affected
employees for one hour of pay paid at the employee’s regular rate, in addition to the amount
earned during the shift. However, when employers cancel shifts, schedule employees for on-call
shifts where they do not need to report to work, or change shifts that result in hours being lost,
employers must pay employees half-time pay for all hours lost or for the entire on-call shift
during which the employees did not report to work. When the ordinance becomes effective,
covered employers will have much less flexibility than they did previously with respect to
managing their workforces. The ordinance will also require employers to offer current
employees the option to pick up more hours before employers are permitted to hire more staff.
Private Right of Action
The ordinance gives covered employees the right to sue their employers for any violation under
the ordinance. Covered employers who violate the ordinance face liability up to three times the
amount owed to the employee, in addition to penalties and fines.
What Should Employers Do Now?
The Seattle Office of Labor Standards Enforcement will be responsible for preparing rules to
implement the ordinance, so covered employers should watch for the proposed rules. Covered
employers should prepare now to comply with the ordinance when it becomes effective in July
2017. Lane Powell will be addressing the ordinance at its “Best Practices for Best Employers”
34th Annual Labor and Employment Seminar on October 11. For more information about the
seminar, visit http://www.lanepowell.com/28693/seminar-34th-annual-labor-and-employmentseminar-seattle/.
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Full
text
of
the
secure
scheduling
ordinance
can
be
found
http://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2813153&GUID=F61A4199-EBA1-4521-87D7647C7ADBB099&FullText=1.
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here:
For more information, please contact the Labor and Employment Practice Group at
Lane Powell: [email protected]
This is intended to be a source of general information, not an opinion or legal advice on any
specific situation, and does not create an attorney-client relationship with our readers. If you
would like more information regarding whether we may assist you in any particular matter,
please contact one of our lawyers, using care not to provide us any confidential information until
we have notified you in writing that there are no conflicts of interest and that we have agreed to
represent you on the specific matter that is the subject of your inquiry.
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