Colorado restaurant groups are speaking up against a proposed bill that would tighten rules for worker schedules at large restaurants, retail businesses and some manufacturing facilities.
House Bill 23-1118 would require businesses with more than 250 employees to release employee schedules two weeks in advance.
Rep. Emily Sirota (D-Denver), the bill’s prime sponsor, said the bill would offer workers more financial security and schedule predictability. The bill is also backed by the national union Restaurant Workers United.
"This bill is a great step toward giving workers at some of the largest restaurants basic protections and security around our schedules,” the union said in a statement to the Leader. “Everyone deserves the right to know when they'll be free to spend time with their family and take care of themselves."
The bill would also require businesses to pay employees if their shifts are canceled last-minute.
Bobby Stuckey, the owner of Frasca Hospitality Group, said the lawmakers behind the proposed bill are “missing a major, major point.”
“I don’t think they understand the restaurant industry enough to understand they’re actually hurting the employees,” he said. “What my employees say — the reason why they’re in the industry is for the flexibility.”
Stuckey opened his first restaurant, Frasca Food and Wine, in Boulder nearly two decades ago after he worked as a restaurant employee for 20 years. Now his group owns two restaurants in the city, as well as two restaurants in Denver. The owner said he prides himself in working closely with his employees to understand what keeps them in the industry.
Many of those workers are single parents, immigrants and people who’ve been incarcerated — the restaurant industry is one of the largest employers of those demographics, he said. And Stuckey believes what they all have in common is they need flexibility, as they are often working more than one job to make ends meet.
“For single mothers, if there’s a snow storm and school gets canceled, two things happen — they need to give up their shifts so they can take care of their kids … but rent is still due at the end of the month, so they may need the flexibility to pick up shifts later in the month so they can be in a financially viable position,” he explained.
Employees also need to be able to cancel their shifts last-minute when dangerous weather hits, Stuckey said.
Sonia Riggs, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association, echoed Stuckey’s concerns.
“This bill is bad for every group it is trying to help: Colorado workers, consumers and businesses,” Riggs said in a statement. “It shows a dire misunderstanding of the way the restaurant industry operates and disregards the flexible scheduling that the industry currently provides, which is extremely valuable to restaurant workers. If schedules need to be posted two weeks in advance, workers will be forced to submit schedule change requests at least a month in advance.”
Riggs said the bill also “strips workers of the ability to switch shifts by penalizing employers for any schedule changes, even changes requested by the employee.”
“If restaurants can’t accommodate the scheduling flexibility their staff asks for, those workers will leave – and hiring is challenging enough already. Service will suffer and consumers will be harmed, as well,” she said.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Emily Sirota, said fair scheduling laws have been successfully implemented across the country, and currently cover more than 2 million workers.
“Last minute schedule changes make planning for life a lot harder — and workers should not carry this burden,” Sirota said in a statement. “Fair Workweek policy will ensure employers provide 14 days advance notice of schedules so workers can handle childcare, plan appointments, and plan for bills like food and rent.”
Sirota said fluctuating work hours lead to “unreliable income and an inability to plan for life, which causes undue stress.”
“The bill actually provides a lot of flexibility for employers and employees to still do things like switch shifts and pick up extra shifts as needed. Fair Workweek is a win-win for employees and employers — it provides for more collaboration around scheduling and will ultimately lead to a more stable, happier, healthier workforce,” the lawmaker’s statement read.
