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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
Employers seek more changes to predictive scheduling legislation
Employers
opposed to
advance notice
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Despite pro-
posed revisions to a bill that
would mandate two weeks’
notice for employee schedule
changes and penalty pay for
changes without the required
notice, employers contin-
ued to voice opposition to the
regulations during a hearing
Monday.
The legislation is “an
ill-conceived attempt to more
formally systematize what
is inherently a very fluid and
dynamic process,” said Chris
Girard of Plaid Pantry Inc.
Girard said the bill “would
actually reduce flexibility in
meeting employees’ sched-
uling needs.” Many employ-
ees
request
last-minute
changes, and the two-week
notice requirement makes it
harder for employers to
accommodate those requests,
he said.
A proposed amendment to
the bill, however, would give
employers a big concession.
The amendment removes a
requirement for “on-call pay.”
The provision would have
required employers to pay for
up to four hours of work if the
employee is on call but works
no hours. The agriculture
community and other busi-
nesses cheered the change but
are still concerned about meet-
ing the requirements, espe-
cially in industries dependent
on weather or deliveries such
as construction or nurseries.
Employers said they’re
also concerned with a pro-
vision that would give
employees the right to
request a schedule change
and make retaliation against
the employee an unlawful
employment practice.
The language in the bill
could open businesses up
to frivolous lawsuits when
bosses deny such requests,
said Betsy Earls, a lobbyist
for Associated Oregon Indus-
tries and the Oregon Retail
Council.
Lobbyists with public
employers urged lawmak-
ers to give an exemption for
collective bargaining agree-
ments, as Seattle did in its
similar ordinance, because the
agreements spell out the pro-
cess for schedule changes and
could conflict with the law.
The requirements would
apply only to retail, hospital-
ity and food services estab-
lishments with 25 or more
employees in Oregon.
If passed, the so-called
“predictive scheduling” legis-
lation would be the first state-
wide law of its kind in the
nation. Only local jurisdic-
tions, such as San Francisco
and Seattle, have passed com-
parable policies. Similar leg-
islation stalled in the Oregon
Legislature in 2015.
Not all employers oppose
the bill. A representative from
the New Seasons grocery
chain spoke in support of the
proposed regulations.
“We know from firsthand
experience that when work-
ers have fair and predictable
scheduling, families thrive
and businesses succeed,”
said Sarah Joannides, social
responsibility director at New
Seasons. Joannides said many
customers shop at the chain
because of the way the com-
pany treats its employees.
Several employees in the
service industry also spoke
about how they have strug-
gled when they haven’t been
able to know their schedule in
advance. One man said he was
given 15 minutes’ notice that
he would be required to work
a double shift.
State Sen. Michael Dem-
brow, D-Portland, sponsored
this year’s legislation after
convening a work group on
predictive scheduling last
year.
Several members from
the business community boy-
cotted the work group meet-
ings because they said they
felt attempts to regulate and
tax businesses in Oregon have
become increasingly over-
reaching and anti-business.
At the time, they pointed to
Measure 97, which sought to
tax certain large corporations
on sales. Voters defeated the
measure overwhelmingly in
November.
Surveys, however, show
that employers often sched-
ule employees with less than
24 hours’ notice, Mary King,
a labor economist and profes-
sor at Portland State Univer-
sity, testified in late Febru-
ary. King and two researchers
from the University of Ore-
gon completed a report on
their research earlier this year.
With such short notice, some
employees cannot find child
care, make doctor’s appoint-
ments, work second jobs or
attend school, she said.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Capital Bureau photos
LEFT: State Sen. Kathleen Taylor, chairwoman of the Workforce Committee, and Legislative Analyst Debra Maryanov
review paperwork before a hearing on predictive scheduling Monday at the Capitol in Salem. RIGHT: Members of the
Working Families Party sit in a hearing on a predictive scheduling bill in the Senate Workforce Committee at the Cap-
itol in Salem Monday. Left to right, in the front row are Ian Johnson, Mark Hehlen and Nicholas Phelan, all of Portland.
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