For Immediate Release
July 19, 2018
Contact: Cynthia Santana, Communications Manager, 206-256-5219, cynthia.santana@seattle.gov
A Milestone for City of Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance: One Year of Outreach, Education and Enforcement
Seattle – (July 19, 2018) – The Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) marks the one-year anniversary of the groundbreaking Secure Scheduling Ordinance (SMC 14.22). The law, which took effect July 1, 2017, aims to give hourly employees who work at large retail and food service establishments more stability and predictability in their work schedules. It requires, among other things, 14 days advance notice of work schedules, additional pay for work schedule changes or insufficient rest time between store closings and openings and notice of additional work opportunities prior to the hiring of external job applicants.
The Secure Scheduling Ordinance applies to large food services and retail businesses with 500+ employees worldwide, as well as full service restaurants with 500+ employees and 40+ full-service restaurant locations worldwide. It is estimated that over 1,000 Seattle businesses are covered by this law.
Due to the groundbreaking and complex nature of the law, OLS has overseen an intensive outreach effort in its attempt to educate both businesses and employees. To date, OLS has conducted over 40 in-person and webinar trainings and has responded to over 500 employer inquiries. OLS’s community partners (funded by the Community Outreach Education Fund) have provided over 220 trainings of workers on secure scheduling since March 2017.
“I’m very appreciative of the information provided by the Office of Labor Standards,” said Patrick A. Yearout, Ivar’s Restaurants Director of Recruiting and Training. “Whenever I have questions about this law, I can count on the OLS business engagement and policy teams to provide me with thoughtful, detailed, and timely responses.”
In addition, OLS has conducted investigations into possible violations by employers. During the past year, OLS has recovered almost $100,000.00 for 500 affected workers in five separate investigations. Currently, OLS has eight ongoing investigations.
The City of Seattle is in the midst of a three-year study, undertaken by academic researchers, to determine the law’s impact on workers and businesses.
“The Secure Scheduling Ordinance is a model for the nation. We have worked hard to educate businesses and workers about this complicated law in order to create a culture of voluntary compliance. We are proud of these efforts but realize more education and enforcement work is needed,” said OLS Director Martin S. Garfinkel.
For more information on the Secure Scheduling ordinance, including upcoming trainings, employer templates, the Secure Scheduling poster (translated into seven languages) and other resources, please visit http://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards.
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