A lawsuit by New York City against Chipotle alleging unfair labor practices might be the momentum a Connecticut “fair work week” bill needs to finally pass the Connecticut General Assembly.
So argue Carlos Moreno, Connecticut state director of the Working Families Party, which is currently advocating for the passage of the bill.
He discussed the legislation this week during an episode of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” with host Babz Rawls-Ivy. (Watch the full interview above.)
The bill, similar to that currently in effect in New York City and to ones also passed in Oregon, Seattle, and Philadelphia, would prohibit on-call scheduling of employees, particularly those in multinational corporations of greater than 250 employees. It would also require a “good faith estimate” of when and how much workers would be expected to work each week.
Without the bill, Moreno said, erratic scheduling “creates a lot of instability and is destabilizing financially for families. It interferes with your ability to care for your family.” He noted that the majority of the people who would benefit from the bill are also working second jobs, and having little consistency affects their ability to schedule shifts for those commitments.
“A healthy work week is one where folks can expect a little bit of predictability in their schedules,” he said.
The benefits of the bill, he claimed, can be seen through New York City’s current lawsuit against Chipotle seeking $450 million. The city is claiming that Chipotle violated the Fair Work week law almost 600,000 times from 2017 – 2019 — averaging three scheduling violations per employee per week.
In Connecticut, the bill has been proposed for multiple years, according to Moreno. Because of the lawsuit, it is currently “gaining traction” this time, he said. Should it pass, Connecticut would become the second state to pass the legislation, after Oregon.
“We’re fighting for these workers because we know they wanted to be treated fairly,” Moreno said of the Working Families Party’s involvement, an advocacy and poltiical organization dedicated to building power for working people. “[The bill] will lift folks out of poverty.”
In the state House, New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter is “a strong advocate and champion” for the bill, he added. The bill recently passed out of the Judiciary Committee. By limiting the proposed law’s scope to big businesses, advocates have been able to gain support of fiscallly moderate Democrats, Moreno said.
This makes so much sense. Irregular hours and schedules for low-wage workers makes it very difficult for them to increase their income (by adding another part-time job or advancing to a higher-wage job), complete school or job training, coordinate reliable child care, or simply be able to plan and predict their own lives.
This is a great article that touches on this problem: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/magazine/americans-jobs-poverty-homeless.html
Excerpt: "Working harder and longer often isn't even an option for those at the mercy of an unpredictable schedule. Nearly 40 percent of full-time hourly workers know their work schedules just a week or less in advance."