New Scheduling Proposal Introduced

Posted on July 5, 2018

On June 27, an amended scheduling proposal was introduced into City Council. According to the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), this amended scheduling proposal includes an exemption for employers that have less than 50 employees, though there is concern that the language is convoluted. Listed below are additional terms in the proposal (provided by IRMA):

  • Allows collective bargaining agreements (CBA) to waive all provisions of the proposal.
  • Mandates that the proposal shall not apply to employees working in the construction industry that are covered by a CBA.
  • Employers must provide employees with a good faith estimate of the work schedule which includes the number of hours per week the employee can expect to work, whether the employee can expect to work any on-call shifts and a subset of days/shifts that the employee can expect to work.
  • An employee can change their availability either before they begin working or upon commencement of work, but the employer must notify the employee in writing PRIOR TO the commencement of employment whether the change in availability will be accepted.
  • Employers must provide written notice of work schedule 14 days before the first day of the workweek and post at the location; employees can request the schedule be issued by the electronic means of the employee’s choice.
  • Employees that are victims of domestic violence, or who have a family/household member that is a victim may request that the public schedule not include their information and that their schedule be submitted to them in whatever manner they request and such change must happen immediately; the employer may request that the employee put the request in writing, but must still act immediately to remove the employee from the public schedule and issue through an alternative medium.
  • Employees do not have to accept any unscheduled hours that did not appear on the previously issued schedule.
  • Employers must pay the employee an additional hour of pay when any of the following occur to a previously issued schedule: the employer adds hours of work; the employer changes the date/times of work even if there is no loss of hours; the employer cancels or subtracts hours from a shift with more than 24 hours notice.
  • Employers must pay the employee no less than one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay per hour if the employer subtracts hours from a regular or on-call shift with less than 24 hours notice or cancels the shift altogether during this time.
  • Whenever a work schedule is changed, it must be changed electronically and in writing in whatever manner the employee deems appropriate; if the employer doesn’t have access to the employee’s favored method, then the employee must choose an alternative method to issue the schedule; if the change is not issued electronically, then the employee must be paid for all hours previously scheduled at the regular rate of pay.
  • Schedules can be issued in a manner that doesn’t comply with the ordinance when operations cannot begin due to threats or at the recommendation of civil authorities, or public utilities cannot be supplied, acts of nature, war, civil unrest or strikes; as the result of shift trades between employees or changes to the schedule made at the employee’s request in writing.
  • Employers must offer additional work hours to existing employees, even if such employees are hired by temp services/staffing agencies, and even if the employee works at a different location, so long as the employee is qualified to do the work as determined in good faith by the employer even if this means that a part time employee will change to a full time employee for purposes of the the Affordable Care Act; the additional hours must be posted 3 days in advance.
  • Employees must accept additional work hours in writing.
  • An employee can decline work hours scheduled if those hours occur within 11 hours after the end of the previous day’s shift. If the employee decides to work within this timeframe, the employee must be paid one and a half times the employee’s regular rate of pay.
  • An employee has the right to request a modified work schedule and must not be retaliated against for making the request.
  • Employers must post the employee’s rights under the ordinance and give written notification to each current and new employee; each employer must provide employees with their name, address and phone number.
  • Fines will be assessed for violations of the ordinance including reimbursement to the city for enforcement costs; records must be retained for 5 years.

The effective date for this ordinance would be January 1, 2019. We will send out updates as they become available.

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