Dems Offer Legislation On “Unfair” Work Schedules

17 Jul, 2015 by William Teach

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Another bit of populist pandering to low wage workers from people who have rarely ever worked a real job

(Daily Caller) In the name of fairness, congressional Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday that would put significant restrictions on how employers schedule their employees.

“This bill is about basic fairness,” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement. “A single mom should know if her hours are being canceled before she arranges for daycare and drives halfway across town to show up at work.”

What about a single dad, or any male? Sounds rather sexist.

Nearly 80 lawmakers out of the House and Senate introduced the measure. The Schedules That Work Act will add restrictions on how employers can schedule their employees. If passed, it would ban employers from putting their employees on call, splitting their shifts, sending workers home with no pay, or punishing them for requesting schedule changes.

It’s already illegal to send workers home with no pay, per FLSA, at least for the time worked. Splitting shifts and on-call? People knew about it when they took the job (and, yes, those things do suck). Schedule changes? If you own a business with 15 or more employees

“Employers would be required to consider and respond to all schedule requests, and, when a worker’s request is made because of a health condition, child or elder care, a second job, continued education, or job training, the employer would be required to grant the request unless a legitimate business reason precludes it.”

Got that? If your employee wants to run off to a second job, you must grant their request. Unless you have a legitimate reason. You, as the business owner, will surely lose if brought up to some government board if you refuse to grant.

For the others, the legislation requires additional pay.

“This bill is extraordinarily intrusive in how it would direct employers to run their operations,” Marc Freedman, an executive director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said according to law firm Seyfarth Shaw’s Employment Law Lookout.

“It will not create new jobs, open up opportunities, nor spur economic growth,” he continued. “In fact, one potential consequence is that employers will cut back on the number of part time and other non-full time employees they carry.”

Democrats do not care. They have a pandering agenda.

Are some workers treated unfairly? Of course. Welcome to Life™. Are these things a big problem? No. Should we have the Central Government dictating and micro-managing the way businesses run? Hey, requiring that schedules be provided two weeks in advance is a good idea, but, this should not be part of the federal code.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.