FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2016
CONTACT: Bailey Dick, 419-260-6044, bailey(at)jwj.org
Washington, D.C. – TODAY, Wednesday, January 13, at 9:30 a.m., a broad coalition of business owners, retail and food service employees, community leaders and councilmembers will hold a press conference to discuss progress on legislation that would bring more stable schedules and fuller employment to thousands of people who live and work in the District. Following the press conference, members of the coalition will testify at a hearing on the bill.
Council bill 21-512, the Hours and Scheduling Stability Act, spearheaded by D.C. Jobs With Justice and introduced by at-large Councilmember Vincent Orange, would require large retail and restaurant chains to provide their employees with advance notice of schedules, promote full-time work opportunities, end “on-call” schedules and ensure equal treatment for hourly employees.
The bill has the backing of eight councilmembers, and a wide majority of D.C. residents say they support the measures included in the legislation. According to a recent poll, 86 percent of D.C. residents say they would support legislation that would mandate stable hours and predictable work schedules from employers. Additionally, 87 percent of those surveyed say they would support rules that would require two weeks’ advance notice of work schedules, and 88 percent say they would support rules that would require large corporate chain stores and restaurants to first offer additional work hours to their part-time employees before hiring new employees.
Similar legislation was enacted in San Francisco in 2014 and is under consideration in Massachusetts, New York and California, as well as in Congress. Dozens of national retail companies have also ended the use of on-call schedules in their stores after public, employee, and legal pressure to do so.
WHAT: Press conference and legislative hearing for the Hours and Scheduling Stability Act
WHO: Nikki Lewis, Executive Director, D.C. Jobs With Justice
Councilmembers invited
District Retail Employees
WHERE: Wilson Building, Room 123
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20004
WHEN: Wednesday, January 13, 2016, 9:30 a.m.