Appeal Tribune Wednesday, March 1, 2017 3B
Bills take aim at irregular scheduling,
on the rise in Oregon’s service industry
TRACY LOEW
STATESMAN JOURNAL
As a bartender in Lake Oswego, Kay-
leigh Game was promised 25 hours a
week but averaged only 15.
“Many times I was expected to hang
out at the restaurant until it got busy
enough to clock on for my shift,” Game
said. “I found I was spending more on
childcare expenses and gas than I was
making.”
Emerson Wood had the opposite prob-
lem. As kitchen manager at a newly ex-
panded restaurant, he was asked to work
80 to 100 hours a week.
“Often I even slept at work because it
wasn’t worth it driving home only to
come back so soon,” Wood said.
When Hali Anderson worked at Star-
bucks, she said, she was scheduled to
close two days a week, leaving at 1 a.m.,
and open another two, starting at 2:30
a.m. The hours came at a cost to her
health.
“I could not keep a consistent sleep
schedule and I became constantly ill and
depressed,” Anderson said.
The three are victims of “irregular
scheduling,” a growing employment
practice that Mary King, Portland State
University economics professor emeri-
ta, calls “a poverty trap.”
King coauthored a recently released
report on the topic that concludes new
scheduling software has encouraged em-
ployers to manage employees as they do
inventory – on a just-in-time basis. That
can mean:
» Sending employees home early on a
scheduled shift if business is slow.
» Scheduling employees for consecu-
tive shifts that allow little time for rest,
such as a closing and then an opening
shift – also known as “clopens.”
» Providing short notice of work
schedules – sometimes less than 24
hours.
» Scheduling extremely variable total
hours from week to week.
“Our findings were that all elements
TRACY LOEW/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Hali Anderson holds back tears at a Thursday news conference in the Oregon State Capitol press room as she describes how she became ill and
depressed after working irregular shifts at Starbucks.
of irregular scheduling practices are
prevalent here in Oregon,” King said at a
Thursday news conference in support of
two scheduling bills under consideration
in the Oregon Legislature.
Irregular scheduling “…prevents peo-
ple from obtaining adequate hours at
work, it prevents them from taking a sec-
ond job, and it prevents them from pursu-
ing further education and training,” King
said.
Senate Bill 828 and House Bill 2193 are
identical. They would, among other
things:
» Require employers to pay workers
for at least four hours if the employee is
scheduled or called in to work but, due to
the employer, does not work an entire
shift.
» Require large employers in speci-
fied industries to provide new employees
with an estimated work schedule, and
provide current employees with work
schedules two weeks in advance.
» Prohibit large employers in speci-
fied industries from scheduling shifts
that don’t allow a sufficient break in be-
tween unless the employee earns 1.5
times scheduled rate of pay.
The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging
Association is opposing the bills, said
Greg Astley, its director of government
affairs.
“We think they fail to take into account
some of the factors that are really be-
yond the restaurant owner’s or lodging
owner’s control,” he said.
Those could include having to close
for weather, such as during recent ice
storms; closing for large protests like the
ones recently held in Portland; or staff-
ing up quickly for large sporting events.
A recent survey of Seattle-area res-
taurant workers showed that three of
four did not want to be chained to a 2-
week schedule, Astley said.
“They would prefer the flexibility,” he
said.
SB 828 is scheduled for its first hear-
ing on Feb. 27 in the Senate Committee on
Workforce. HB 2193 has been assigned to
the House Committee on Business and
Labor.
At least 23 other cities or states have
adopted scheduling policies over the past
three years, King said.
“Our state and federal labor laws don’t
address these issues,” she said. “We
strongly believe Oregon should adopt
legislation along these lines. We need an
economy that works for everyone, not
just the wealthy and the well connected.”
tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-
399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tra-
cy_Loew
Oregon pot tax revenue continues decline
JONATHAN BACH
STATESMAN JOURNAL
The trend line for Oregon’s marijuana
tax revenue gains is starting to look like
one of the state’s many mountains: It
went up first, then plummeted down.
Marijuana tax revenue in Oregon con-
tinued a steady decline from late last
year, a marked departure from the
strong upward trend that defined early
months of tax collection of the state’s le-
gal pot industry.
Buffeted by reportedly strained
supplies, the amount of money flowing
into the state has tumbled consistently
month-over-month since a high last Octo-
ber of $7.83 million, with January’s fig-
ure falling more than $2.5 million short
of that number.
On Tuesday, the state reported $5.26
million in tax payments for the first
month of the year. January tax collection
figures released by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Revenue were off a few hundred
thousand dollars from last December
and more than $1 million from Novem-
ber.
But January’s figures mean the state
has made $65.4 million since collection
started, and not everyone is a critic.
“The (marijuana tax) numbers ... sug-
gest very strong collection,” Mazen Ma-
lik, a senior economist with the Oregon
Legislature, told the Associated Press.
“Thus it suggests that the transition is
being implemented successfully and the
consumers are continuing to buy at the
rate we saw last year.”
Send questions, comments or news
tips to jbach @statesmanjournal.com or
503-399-6714. Follow him on Twitter
@JonathanMBach.
ANDREW SELSKY, AP FILE
In this Sept. 30, 2016, file photo, a marijuana harvester examines buds going through a
trimming machine near Corvallis, Ore.
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