海角大神

For more than two decades, workers in the retail and restaurant industries have struggled to balance family life and other obligations with jobs that demand they be 鈥渙n call.鈥� Now, under legal pressure and in a tightening labor market, some employers are changing their approach.

On Tuesday, the New York Attorney General鈥檚 office announced that six retailers 鈥撀燗eropostale, Carter鈥檚, David鈥檚 Tea, Disney, PacSun, and Zumiez 鈥撀爃ave agreed to end 鈥渙n-call鈥� scheduling. From now on, their employees will not need to check each day聽whether they should come to work, nor do they risk being sent home early without pay when the store is quiet. Four of the companies also committed to giving employees their schedules one week in advance.

Ending 鈥渙n-call鈥� scheduling will make a big difference for employees, increasing the predictability of work schedules and making it easier to plan other activities. But they aren鈥檛 the only ones who will benefit from the change, observers say: It could also bring long-term benefits for businesses and society.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty significant move,鈥� Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy, tells 海角大神 in a phone interview. 鈥淩etail companies ... are really starting to recognize that they need to invest in their workforce.鈥�

In the past, workers鈥� wages were considered a fixed cost, wrote Robert Reich, who served as Labor secretary during Bill Clinton鈥檚 presidency and is now a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. In the 1990s, however, wages became a variable cost: Many businesses used on-call scheduling to trim costs by having as few workers as possible. Some even deployed software systems that highlighted the times when employees were least needed.

That kind of scheduling takes a substantial toll on workers, explains Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics and labor-employment relations at Penn State University-Abington, in a phone interview with the Monitor. Professor Golden was the primary author of an April report for the Economic Policy Institute about the consequences of irregular work scheduling.

Uncertain hours make it hard for workers to plan their daily lives, says Golden. Holding down a second job becomes more difficult, uncertain paychecks mean incomes often fall short, and childcare is an increased challenge.聽

These employees are most likely to experience 鈥渨ork-life conflict鈥� and be stressed at work, Golden notes.

That also puts businesses with 鈥渙n-call鈥� scheduling on the wrong side of some state and federal labor laws. In April, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the attorneys general of seven other states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to the six retailers asking them to end the practice, as they have now agreed to do.

Ms. Gleason points to that April letter and other, similar investigations as the "single most influential factor" in moving businesses away from these scheduling practices. Seven other businesses announced that they would end "on-call" scheduling in 2015.

But with a new presidential administration kicking off in a few weeks, the future of these investigations is uncertain.

鈥淭he incoming Labor Secretary is [at] the complete opposite end of the spectrum,鈥� Gleason says, making it 鈥渋ncumbent now on states鈥� to continue pushing for these standards.聽

Worker-friendly policies are becoming bipartisan causes in many states, the Monitor鈥檚 Schuyler Velasco wrote in October 鈥撀燼nd New York is one of several states working toward a legislative ban on 鈥渙n-call鈥� scheduling. In September, Seattle's city council unanimously passed a 鈥渟ecure scheduling鈥� law, which requires employers to schedule their workers 14 days in advance, and includes a "right to rest" provision that allows workers to decline closing and opening shifts that are less than 10 hours apart.聽

Businesses themselves may have incentives to end on-call scheduling. In a tightening labor market, employers want to hang on to their workers, notes Golden, who is also a senior research analyst at the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois. And businesses that offer better hours 鈥撀燼nd more consistent hours 鈥撀燼re more appealing to workers, leading to better retention.

The more businesses sign on to these measures, the more workers鈥� wages are taken out of the cost-cutting equation. More than 300,000 workers have been impacted so far, says Gleason.

Greater certainty about schedules has benefits beyond individual workers, she says. If people know when they鈥檙e working, they can also schedule time to be with their children, or attend college and grad school classes.

鈥淓mployees are going to be better off, and maybe even society,鈥� she says.